L118 Light Gun

Gun, 105mm, field, L118
Royal Artillery firing 105mm light guns on exercise in 2013
Type	Towed howitzer
Place of origin	United Kingdom
Service history
Used by	United Kingdom others (see article)
Wars	Western Sahara War, Falklands War, Yugoslav Wars, Sierra Leone Civil War, Iraq War, Afghanistan War
Production history
Designer	Royal Armament Research and Development Establishment
Manufacturer	Royal Ordnance Factory (later BAE Systems Land and Armaments)
Produced	from 1975
Specifications
Weight	1,858 kg (4,096 lb)
Length	8.8 m (28 ft 10 in)
Barrel length	37 calibers
Width	1.78 m (5 ft 10 in)
Height	2.13 m (7 ft)
Crew	6 (normal), 4 (reduced)
Calibre	105 mm (4.1 in)
Breech	vertical sliding block with electric firing mechanism
Recoil	hydropneumatic
Carriage	box trail, firing with wheels on the ground or platform
Elevation	−5.625° (−100 mils) to 70.3125° (1,250 mils)
Traverse	360° (6,400 mils) on its platform and top traverse 5.625° (100 mils) left or right
Rate of fire	6–8 rounds per minute
Muzzle velocity	maximum 708 m/s (2,320 ft/s)
Maximum firing range	17,200 m (18,800 yd) (20.6 km (22,500 yd) extended range using base bleed)
Sights	optical dial sight on reciprocating mount or inertial using three ring laser gyros

The L118 light gun is a 105 mm towed howitzer. It was originally produced for the British Army in the 1970s and has been widely exported since, including to the United States, where a modified version is known as the "M119 howitzer". The proper name for it is "gun, 105mm, field, L118" but it is almost always called the "light gun".

From 1961 until the mid-1970s, the British Army used the 105 mm pack howitzer L5 with L10 ordnance (OTO Melara Mod 56) as its light artillery weapon, variously replacing the 75mm howitzer, 4.2 inch mortar and 25-pounder gun in some eight regular artillery regiments. It fires the US M1 type ammunition (called "105 mm How" in the UK). This widely used howitzer was originally designed in Italy for the Alpini, and is light enough to be lifted by Westland Wessex helicopters or towed by Land Rovers. However, it lacked range (making it potentially vulnerable to counter-battery fire), was not notably robust, had poor sights and was not entirely popular.

In 1965, a general staff requirement was approved for a new 105 mm weapon system because the pack howitzer "lacked range and lethality". Key characteristics included 6400 mil (360°) traverse by one soldier, maximum weight of 3,500 pounds (1,600 kg), dimension limits imposed by internal carriage in Chinook helicopters and Andover transport aircraft, and the ability to fire immediately after being under water for 30 minutes.

The ammunition to be used was the 105 mm Fd Mk 2 ammunition used in the L13 ordnance of the gun equipment 105 mm L109 (better known as the "Abbot self-propelled gun"). This ammunition uses electrical instead of percussion primers and is an entirely different design from the US M1 type ammunition as used in the L5 pack howitzer. The two types are not interchangeable. An early requirement was for the new weapon to use 105mm Fd Mk 1 ammunition, which uses the M1 shell, in training. However, in 1968, this was changed to allow a different version of the weapon, which subsequently became the L119, to fire US 1935 pattern (i.e. M1) ammunition.