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- Dictionaryartillery/ɑːˈtɪl(ə)ri/
noun
- 1. large-calibre guns used in warfare on land: "tanks and heavy artillery"
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In the 20th century, target acquisition devices (such as radar) and techniques (such as sound ranging and flash spotting) emerged, primarily for artillery. These are usually utilized by one or more of the artillery arms.
ARTILLERY definition: 1. very large guns that are moved on wheels or metal tracks, or the part of the army that uses…. Learn more.
The meaning of ARTILLERY is weapons (such as bows, slings, and catapults) for discharging missiles. How to use artillery in a sentence.
- Overview
- Rifled bores
artillery, in military science, crew-served big guns, howitzers, or mortars having a calibre greater than that of small arms, or infantry weapons. Rocket launchers are also commonly categorized as artillery, since rockets perform much the same function as artillery projectiles, but the term artillery is more properly limited to large gun-type weapons using an exploding propellant charge to shoot a projectile along an unpowered trajectory.
For three centuries after the perfection of cast-bronze cannon in the 16th century, few improvements were made in artillery pieces or their projectiles. Then, in the second half of the 19th century, there occurred a series of advances so brilliant as to render the artillery in use when the century closed probably 10 times as efficient as that which marked its opening. These remarkable developments took place in every aspect of gunnery: in the pieces, with the successful rifling of cannon bores; in the projectiles, with the adoption of more stable elongated shapes; and in the propellants, with the invention of more powerful and manageable gunpowders.
In the middle years of the 19th century, smoothbore field artillery was placed at a disadvantage by the adoption of rifled small arms, which meant that infantry weapons could now outrange artillery. It therefore became vital to develop rifling for artillery weapons as well. The advantages of rifling were well known, but the technical difficulties of adapting the principle to heavy weapons were considerable. Several systems had been tried; these generally involved lead-coated projectiles that could engage shallow rifling grooves or projectiles fitted with studs that would fit into deeper rifling. None had proved adequate.
Britannica Quiz
Artillery definition: mounted projectile-firing guns or missile launchers, mobile or stationary, light or heavy, as distinguished from small arms.. See examples of ARTILLERY used in a sentence.
artillery in British English. (ɑːˈtɪlərɪ ) noun. 1. guns, cannon, howitzers, mortars, etc, of calibre greater than 20 mm. 2. troops or military units specializing in using such guns. 3. the science dealing with the use of guns.
n. 1. mounted projectile-firing guns or missile launchers, light or heavy, as distinguished from small arms. 2. the troops or the branch of an army concerned with the use and service of such weapons. 3. the science that treats of the use of such weapons.
