"The U.S. Army Is Moving Forward Smartly on ..." Topic

…Advanced Long-Range Artillery.

"It is generally recognized that the key to the U.S. Army's efforts to prepare itself for a new era of great power conflict is a new set of long-range fire systems. General John Murray, the head of Army Futures Command, testified before Congress that "our first modernization priority is to restore the Army's Long-Range Precision Fires (LRPF) capabilities in order to regain our dominance in range, lethality, and target acquisition." To that end, the Army has a plan to upgrade or modernize its array of artillery, rockets and missile systems. Initially, it will improve the performance of existing systems. But within the next decade, the Army expects to deploy artillery, rockets and missiles that can reach out hundreds, maybe thousands, of miles and accurately strike their targets.

The first enhanced system, the M109A7 Paladin self-propelled howitzer, built by BAE Systems, has just entered full-rate production. The Paladin is a mobile, armored 155mm artillery system intended as the primary indirect fire support capability for the Armored Brigade Combat Teams (ABCTs). The M109A7 is a significant upgrade of the current version of the Paladin. It uses the existing main armament and turret of a Paladin M109A6 while replacing the vehicle's chassis components (including the engine, drive train, electric power generation and suspension) with components common to the Bradley vehicle. The additional power generation capability will support an improved capacity for electric gun drives and rammers. The M109A7 will incorporate a digital backbone architecture, on-board digital fire control system, and a sophisticated navigation system to provide firing data. The Paladin modernization program will also upgrade the M992A2 Field Artillery Ammunition Support Vehicle (FAASV) that accompanies the Paladin and carries additional artillery rounds…"

Main page
link

Amicalement
Armand