US artillery rockets hitting ISIL forces from 43 miles away

War is Boring:

There are few instances where artillery can be considered a quiet addition to the battlefield. But as it turns out, the U.S. Army has hurled hundreds of rockets at Islamic State militants for months without much public attention.

On Nov. 22, the American-led coalition hit nearly 20 targets across Iraq. An official press release pointed out that Washington and her allies had hit staging areas, fighting positions, car bombs and more with both warplanes and rocket launchers.

“We have fired over 400 HIMARS rounds at ISIL targets, since the middle of summer,” a public affairs officer with the main American task force in Baghdad told War Is Boring in an email. HIMARS stands for the six-wheeled High Mobility Artillery Rocket System launcher.
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The 227-millimeter rockets have enough range to keep the launchers far from the front lines. Carrying a 200-pound high explosive warhead and guided by GPS, the M-31 rocket can hit precise targets up to 43 miles away. Each HIMARS vehicle can shoot up to six rounds in rapid succession before needing to reload.

The trucks can also fire rockets filled with tiny bomblets or a single, larger Army Tactical Missile System missile. The Army is working on new warheads that will shred targets with a cloud of shrapnel.

In Iraq, the rockets’ accurate nature and ability to fall straight down onto a single target have been especially important. The round “strikes a target with pinpoint accuracy with minimal potential for collateral damage as it impacts a target at a 90-degree angle and has a relatively small blast radius for the effect achieved,” the public affairs official noted.

The Army designed the rockets in the 1970s to wipe out armor formations with a hail of small anti-tank grenades. Batteries of heavy, tracked Multiple Launch Rocket Systems would help stem any Soviet invasion into Germany.0
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The units will fit into a C-130 cargo bay.  Traditional artillery with that kind of range would weigh much more.  They give US backed forces a tactical advantage as a stand off weapon.