JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Wash. – Soldiers from the 3rd Stryker Brigade’s 1st Battalion, 37th Field Artillery Regiment (1-37 FA Bn) will conduct direct fire gunnery training this Thursday morning, March 3, at 9 a.m., using the M-777 Lightweight Field Howitzer.
For the first time in several years, all three field artillery battalions from JBLM’s three Stryker Brigade Combat Team’s (3-17 FA, 2/2 SBCT; 1-37 FA, 3/2 SBCT; 2-12 FA, 4/2 SBCT) will be home and training, as well as the 1-377 FA howitzer battalion from the 17th Fires Brigade.
With four 155mm howitzer battalions training and firing at JBLM this spring and summer, the surrounding communities will notice an increase in the number of “booms” coming from the base.
The M-777 is the world’s first 155mm howitzer weighing less than 10,000 lbs. The U.S. Army has been fielding the M-777 since 2006; however, field artillery units on JBLM are just now beginning to do some of the first live fire training using the newer howitzer. The M-777 replaced the M-198 towed howitzer in the active Army which has been in service since the late 1960s and weighs more than 15,700 lbs.
Last December, JBLM’s 1st Battalion, 377th Field Artillery Battalion, 17th Fires Brigade retired its M-198 howitzers, making them the last active duty Army unit to fire the larger howitzers.