{{Short description|US self-propelled howitzer}} {{for|target acquisition/fire control subsystem of the airburst grenade launcher currently under development|XM25 CDTE}}
{{Multiple issues| {{more citations needed|date=July 2017}} {{more footnotes|date=July 2017}} }} thumb|260px|XM104 howitzer pilot model [[File:XM204 Soft Recoil Howitzer at the Wehrtechnisches museum.jpg|thumb|260px|XM204 Soft Recoil Howitzer at the WTS Koblenz]] thumb|260px|XM204 Soft Recoil Howitzer at the WTS Koblenz (Bundeswehr Museum of German Defense Technology) {{external media|image1=[https://www.flickr.com/photos/34540417@N07/9110956266/in/photostream/lightbox/ Howitzer, self-propelled, 105 mm, XM104 prototype at the U.S. Army Artillery Museum, Fort Sill, Oklahoma].}} The '''XM104''' was a U.S.-developed self-propelled amphibious/air-droppable/heliborne 105 mm howitzer. Pilot models of the howitzer were built by the U.S. Army Ordnance Tank Automotive Command's Experimental Division at the Detroit Tank Arsenal shops, Warren, Mich. A follow-up model is known as XM204.
== Mobility == The vehicle represented a new concept of self-propelled artillery, it could be stripped for air delivery by helicopter, parachute drop or ground-landing by the Army's DHC-4 Caribou and Air Force C-130 Hercules. Brig. Gen. J. Frederick Thorlin, Commanding General of OTAC, said the full-tracked vehicle, designated the XM104, was developed in answer to the Army's urgent request for a "heavyweight puncher with featherweight mobility."
== Characteristics == XM104 had a 4-man crew, was to travel at 35 miles per hour, negotiate swamps and desert sand, cross rivers and lakes. Combat weight of the vehicle was around 6,400 pounds.
== Capabilities == The XM104 was designed to provide ground troops with a "scatback" artillery piece which could travel anywhere in the world with airborne combat troops. Once on line, it could follow right behind infantry or armour units.
== XM204 == A similar designation is known with the model ''XM204 Soft Recoil Howitzer'', which had swamp-rollers and could be towed by trucks.<ref>War Department: ''Operator and organizational maintenance manual for howitzer, light, towed : 105mm soft recoil, XM204'', 1967, {{OCLC|56666364}}</ref> With this artillery piece the army examined also an airborne version with Boeing CH-47 Chinook helicopters. The aerial artillery design Study is known as: ''Two Externally Mounted XM204 Howitzers on a CH-47C Helicopter''<ref>[https://sobchak.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/aerial-artillery-design-study-two-externally-mounted-xm204-howitzers-on-a-ch-47c-helicopter.pdf Boeing Technical Report D210-10506-1 October 1972], DAAFO3-72-C-OO116, The Boeing Company, Vertol Division</ref>
== References == {{Reflist}} * [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015078433268;view=1up;seq=173 OTAC Developing Self-Propelled Howitzer, XM-104]. // ''Army Research and Development'', June 1962, v. 3, no. 6, p. 15. {{PD-notice}}
Category:Abandoned military projects of the United States Category:105 mm artillery Category:Self-propelled howitzers of the United States Category:Tracked self-propelled howitzers Category:Airborne fighting vehicles Category:Cold War artillery of the United States
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