Someone please teach these people to shoot straight.

[DaveB]

Also on Monday, the US military said three civilians who died on Friday were killed in a training exercise.

An artillery round fired from a US military base near Hibhib (about 20km north of Baquba) struck a building in the nearby town, a statement said.

Two Iraqis were killed instantly, while a third died later from her wounds.

This comes amid investigations of a number of incidents in which civilians were killed by US troops.

Last week, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Maliki expressed concern about the increase in the number of deadly incidents described as mistakes by the US military, saying there was "a limit to acceptable excuses".

Most attention has been focused on an incident in the town of Haditha where US marines are alleged to have killed up to 24 Iraqi civilians in November 2005.

Troops fired the 155mm shell from the base near Baquba, the US military statement said.

"A short time later Iraqi police reported an explosion at a building in the town [Hibhib] that killed two Iraqi civilians, injured four others and damaged six houses," it said.

It added that an injured woman was taken to a military medical facility but later died.

US forces went to the site of the explosion to provide medical assistance, the statement said.

[The Lone Gunman]

Same old same old....

My Grandad always said during WWII that when the Germans fired the Brits ducked, when the Brits fired the Germans ducked and when the Yanks fired everybody ducked.....so ....... no change there then!

[Xenophon]

More buffoonery from the nation that invented the expression (I presume) 'friendly fire'...

[Fungus]

It's well known that during the Iraq war (part deux) more UK troops were killed by the US than by the Iraqis.

[sparklelard]

They haven't blamed it on Sun-spots yet - have they?

[AtW]

Troops fired the 155mm shell from the base near Baquba, the US military statement said.

Caliber implies its a howitzer and these normally shoot at targets that are not seen at straight line, ie 10 km away: this really answers your question - no you can't shoot straight from howitzer.

See image below:

[MrsGoof]

A friend was in the RA during the first Gulf, he described their (UK troops using howitzer) accuracy something like "They couldn't hit the pot they were pissing in even if they were sitting on it" or something very close to that.

Luckily they never saw front line action.

[OrangeHopper]

Take note that the American forward observers were probably trained using British indirect fire simulators.

By the way, it is perfectly acceptable to use an indirect fire artillery piece at zero degrees to take out an advancing tank. It is only a question of what shell you uses as to whether it will be effective or not.

[AtW]

By the way, it is perfectly acceptable to use an indirect fire artillery piece at zero degrees to take out an advancing tank.

When was the last time this happened in Iraq or even in Gulf War 1? Those high-caliber Howitzers these days designed to be well behind the front line, like 20 km or even more: positioned in a very safe place to provide heavy support far away. That's theory, but in practice I am not suprised they missed - they simply dont get to play the kind of role they used to (ie in WW2), these days close support from helicopers is much more effective because they can see which exact building to flatten.

Either way the question why those guys shooting from Howitzers could not shoot straight is fully answered.

While on the topic - Russia now developed new interesting round for howitzer, its almost a missile that can correct itself onto target via GPS or if target is highlighted by laser beams - extremely accurate results from up to like 50 km.

[OrangeHopper]

.. if target is highlighted by laser beams ..

We were training forward observers how to do this over twenty years ago.

Indirect fire weapons are used as direct fire weapons when you are about to be overrun for obvious reasons.

The calculations to convert range, bearing and up/down to elevation and azimuth of gun involve basic trig, newtonian physics and adjustments for propellant temperature and density, weather, earth's rotation plus the guns characteristics determined using live firing at commissioning. However, these only aim (pun intended) to get the shell in the right ball park. It is why the forward observer is there to adjust the initial rounds on to the target before calling for a fire for effect.