Taliban Fear 155mm Excalibur “Finger of Death”

[perocity]

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Apropos of our earlier post on precision guided indirect fire and the Army’s decision to cut its buy of Excalibur precision 155mm rounds, our own Christian Lowe checks in from his embed out near the Afghanistan-Pakistan border:

I spoke with an artillery forward observer with Angel Company, 3–187, at FOB Sharana the other day who told me about the few times he’s employed the Excalibur precision 155 round.

He said despite the infrequent use and the Army’s apparent lack of enthusiasm for the weapon, it sure makes a heck of an impression on the Taliban – so much so that they’ve derived a nickname for the round.

According to the artillery FO, radio traffic pulled from Taliban radio chatter indicates they call the Excalibur round “The Finger of Death.” When the FO told me this, he extended his index finger and pointed in a long arc right into the palm of his hand – showing that when they fire one of these, it hits exactly where they aimed it and kills everyone there.

We’re a little too far from the flagpole out here to slice and dice the internal debates in DC over this round. But suffice it to say the bad guys around here would prefer that the “Finger of Death” not point at them.

– Greg Grant

Read more: http://defensetech.org/2010/05/19/taliban-fear-155mm-excalibur-finger-of-death/#idc-container#ixzz0oOtHGaPl
Defense.org

[Reactor-Axe-Man]

I think it is becoming more and more clear that as time passes without a successful major attack in the US that those who consider themselves to be 'in charge' believe that they can meddle more and more with the system. Back when the ashes of the Towers still smoldered and al-Qaeda's next attack feared to be right around the corner, these elite fools were too scared to get in the way and allowed the folks who actually have a clue to do their jobs. It is because of these competent leaders in the lower echelons that we have enjoyed the lack of terror and mayhem that we have currently been blessed with. This respite has given courage to the elite fools, who have decided to go all-in scamming procurement contracts for their friends, engaging in pointless and destructive turf wars with their rivals, and otherwise turn the war into their personal playgrounds/moneypits.

That is why you can have a successful weapon system which scares the shit out of the Taliban that the highest level Army brass and the morons in charge of the Fuckup Factory at the Pentagon want no part of.

[ianstone]

Appropriately named, payback for all those I.E.D. artillery shells. Sweet !