laststandonzombieisland

The U.S. military perfected a self-propelled 8-inch howitzer in the early 1960s using the same Detroit Diesel 8V71T-powered double-tracked hull as the M107 175mm gun, only fitted with a short-barreled (25.3 caliber) 203mm M2A2 howitzer. The resulting gun, the M110, was improved in the 1980s with the longer-barreled (43-caliber) M201 203mm gun, complete with a double-baffle muzzle brake, in the follow-on M110A1/A2 variants.

US Army 8-inch gun Vietnam M110 SP, short tube

Vietnam 8-inch gun at Oasis 1968 D Battery, 5/16th FA, SP Howitzer M110 Diablo II. Note that short tube

Vietnam 8-inch gun at Oasis 1968 D Battery, 5/16th FA, SP Howitzer M110 Diablo II. 

1976 Rock Island Arsenal M110E1 203 mm 8-in Self-Propelled Howitzer with Muzzle Break

Used extensively in Vietnam and during the Cold War (the latter including a watch on the Fulda Gap, complete with the M426 chemical, M422, and M753 nuclear shells), a total of 1,163 M110 systems had been manufactured by the time the line ended in 1985.

American gunners of B Bty, 6 Bn, 27th Artillery, fire an M110 8-inch howitzer during a fire support mission at LZ Hong, approx. 12 km northeast of Song Be, South Vietnam. 26 March 1970.

3rd and 4th Armored Division artillerymen watching over W33 Atomic shell near M110 Self-Propelled Howitzer circa 1970. At 40 kilotons, it was double the yield of Hiroshima. It used tritium boosting to get more power.

Replaced by the 270mm MLRS in U.S. service in 1994 following a swan song in the first Gulf War, the Pentagon shopped around the low-round count M110A2s still on hand to assorted customers in the Middle East/Mediterranean in Bahrain, Egypt, Greece, Jordan, Morocco, and Pakistan, most of which still have them.

Also, Taiwan got a boatload, of which 70 are still in front-line service, as seen in this recent moto video from the country’s military, loading their 200-pound shells via hydraulic rammers and blasting them offshore at ranges under 26,000 yards.