the army's extended range cannon artillery airca system under development hit a target
43 miles away or 70 kilometers on the nose yuma proving ground arizona deck
using an excalibur extended range guided artillery shell
according to the general who is overseeing the services long range precision fires modernization
i don't think our adversaries have the ability to hit a target on the nose at 43 miles brig
jen john rafferty who is in charge of the effort told a small group of reporters in
a teleconference immediately following the test the army is racing to extend
artillery ranges on the battlefield to take away advantages of high-end adversaries like russia
the erica cannon when fielded should be able to fire and take out targets from a position out
of the range of enemy systems the airca cannon takes an m109a7 paladin integrated management
pim howitzer chassis and replaces the 39 caliber gun tube with a 58 caliber 30-foot one combined
with raytheon made s-caliber munitions in an xm1113 using supercharged propellant the army
has been able to dramatically boost artillery ranges in march the army inched closer to the
ultimate goal of 70 kilometers when it took two shots both reaching 65 kilometers in range
the first shot due to the winds fell short by roughly 100 meters which rafferty said sounds
like a lot but is closer when considering when the munition has to travel 70 000 meters the army knew
the first shot would come up short due to wind but wanted to take it anyway in order to learn from it
the second shot the army had modified the hardware configuration and experience a hardware failure
gibbs confirmed specifically the army added an isolator for the inertial measurement unit
which is essentially a shock absorber to counter the pressure spike in the chamber
we did have some concerns with the survivability of that rafferty said
today is really the buildup of about a year and a half of testing and analysis that we've
done on the s caliber projectile in terms of its ability to withstand a harsher environment gibbs
said so through a number of tests and analysis we determined what muzzle velocity is required what
chamber pressures the projectile can withstand and so all that came together in today's test we fired
it at the right propellant combination to provide the right muzzle velocity to achieve the range
additionally the army demonstrated the s caliber as it exists in the inventory now is survivable
with a higher muzzle velocity and pressures to get to 70 kilometer ranges and hit targets directly
gibbs added in the coming year we'll make a lot of decisions and actually start to address them
snapping the chalk line on a few things rafferty said we will snap the chalk line on the propellant
we will snap the chalk line on the projectile design and begin to look towards manufacturability
towards production the army will continue its soldier center design effort to include ensuring
the configurations for the propellant and charge are something the soldiers can handle and that it
doesn't affect the rate of fire rafferty noted we obviously don't want to give them a configuration
that's going to cause them to have to shoot slower and the configuration of projectiles and
propellant also has to be optimally stowed in a howitzer to maximize the number of kills on board
the army is looking to nail down its design in 2021 gibbs said the muzzle
velocities and pressures that those munitions see is important in the final design choices they make
but also for example the size of the rocket motor the type of joint holding the rocket
motor to the warhead that ultimately affects the performance in the range that it will get
to include the type of steel that we use affects lethality you see there's multiple factors that
are in play right now and as we converge on our designs this year we'll start to neck down on
those choices into our final designs and that we will take into qualification the army is pushing
to get an urgent material and safety releases to field the erica system in 2023 rafferty said
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