Articles
Logan Nye
Mar. 27, 2017 05:15PM EST

12 badass photos of artillery lighting up the night

If you've clicked into this article, then you already know what you're looking for here. A bunch of huge metal tubes launching high-explosives into the air that are destined to rain down on firing ranges and enemy targets, right? You probably want a couple of them to use as computer wallpapers or something.

Yeah, artillery is pretty great, so let's just skip the wordplay and get into it:

1. An M109A6 Paladin self-propelled howitzer fires a 155mm round through the night skies of Fort Riley, Kansas.

(Photo: U.S. Army Sgt. John Portela)

2. U.S. Marines in Japan fire their own 155mm howitzer round from an M777A2.

(Photo: U.S. Marine Corps Sgt. Jose O. Nava)

3. A North Carolina National Guard artillery team fires their Paladin at night in Fort Bragg.

(Photo: U.S. Army Capt. Veronica Aguila)

4. Artillerymen from the 101st Airborne Division fire their M777 at night in support of Iraqi Security Forces battling ISIS.

(Photo: U.S. Army Spc. Christopher Brecht)

5. More 101st artillerymen send a 155mm round downrange to slaughter ISIS jerkwads under attack by Iraqi security forces.

(Photo: U.S. Army Spc. Jaquan P. Turnbow)

6. Army paratroopers fire high-angle during a training exercise at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

(Photo: U.S. Army Capt. Joe Bush)

7. American Marines practice moving and firing their towed howitzers during an exercise in Japan.

(Photo: U.S. Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Juan Bustos)

8. A mortar crew fires during a training mission. Mortars are historically an artillery weapon but are employed by infantrymen in the modern Army and Marine Corps.

(Photo: Department of Defense)

9. For the record, the definition of artillery usually centers on "high-caliber guns," and American mortars typically range from 60 to 120mm. Also, they look awesome.

(Photo: U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Pablo N. Piedra)

10. Air defense artillerymen send a Stinger into the sky and it slams into a drone target.

(Photo: U.S. Army Sgt. Brad Mincey)

11. Avengers are vehicle-mounted missile launchers that fire Stingers, short-range air defense weapons that annihilate low-flying targets.

(Photo: Mississippi National Guard Maj. Andy Thaggard)

12. A U.S. Army howitzer crew fires at night in Joint Base Lewis-McChord while supporting an artillery observer competition.

(Photo: U.S. Army)

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