The M119 howitzer is a lightweight towed 105mm field artillery weapon system. It is an indirect-fire (gunfire delivered to a target that is not in a direct line of sight) weapon that primarily fires projectiles along a curved trajectory. This paper will discuss the impact of a manufactured tooling groove defect in the firing plate on the life cycle of the cradle. Results predicted that the cradle with the gouge cut in the firing plate would have a design life greater than 1000 cycles. Results are consistent with the 200+ successful shots that have been completed on fielded M119 howitzers with this gouge.
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