SP, MLRS and SPAA Developments

[DRG]

Re: HIMARS rockets
https://www.dote.osd.mil/Portals/97/...202.1%20meters).

The 200-pound GMLRS-AW high-explosive warhead contains
approximately 160,000 preformed tungsten fragments. This
warhead change eliminates the unexploded ordnance found in
the GMLRS Dual-Purpose Improved Conventional Munitions
rockets.

The PQT demonstrated the GMLRS-AW rocket is reliable
(17 successes in 17 flights) and accurate (median miss
distance of 2.1 meters). Reliability and accuracy were further
demonstrated in the June 2014 DT/OT (15 successes in
15 flights, and median miss distance of 2.7 meters). There
is no system requirement for accuracy. The contractor
specification is less than 15 meters Circular Error Probable

[MarkSheppard]

https://kyivindependent.com/denmark-...raine-says-pm/

Denmark has decided to deliver all the artillery rounds from its stockpiles to Ukraine, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen told the Ukrainian Lunch at the Munich Security Conference on Feb. 17.

Artillery shells are among the most crucial military supplies for Ukraine, as they are used daily in high numbers on the Ukrainian battlefields.

“If you ask Ukrainians, they are asking us for ammunition now, artillery now. From the Danish side, we decided to donate our entire artillery,” Frederiksen said.

There's a lot of translation wariness. Is it just shells or is it also the artillery pieces as well?

[Aeraaa]

Well, if they give all their ammunition stocks to Ukraine, they might as well give all of their tubes.

[FASTBOAT TOUGH]

Denmarks real contribution in hardware will be the Caesar 8x8 which has the FCS of the newer Caesar 6x6 NG. Both will feature new redesigned armored cabs with the 8x8 having much better mobility AND carry more onboard ammo (Off the top I believe that to be 46 to 48 Rds. to include BONUS.)

Denmark had 8 or 10 and as I’ve already posted, France is fulfilling the order of a total of 18 units Denmark wanted and ship them to the Ukraine when completed.

With the improvements on the Caesar NG, as of last reporting Denmark will probably buy them as they are “cheaper” and can buy a few more of that version.

Denmark is/was the ONLY operator of the 8x8 version prior to the donation to the Ukraine.

The NG will also be more mobile than the original Caesar from the lessons learned from all the other user countries.

Since I’m at it, the UK testing of the Archer is going very well to include the very recent live fire tests that were conducted. My impression is they are definitely “fast tracking” it. With that in mind I wouldn’t be surprised if it doesn’t reach FOC by JUL or early Fall. We’ll see.

Since I’m on the UK, AJAX just recently completed Winter Ops testing in SWEDEN. However, as already posted from MOD and Parliament sources; there are no changes to IOC and FOC status of which both are after 2025.

At least for UK RL this bodes well for the Army overall thus far.

And since we’re on SWEDEN welcome to NATO!

For the “Other Guy” all he gets will be a mean !

Back to vacation mode since we saw them Sunday they’re undefeated (They lost the opener on Saturday.) and hope they keep it up for our last game later today. I’m happy to have had such an influence on the team!?!

Regards,
Pat

[FASTBOAT TOUGH]

I should've asked all the questions from the previous page.

First Denmark has ONLY USA imported HIMARS and the afore mentioned CAESAR 8x8 with 19 UNITS.

This will include their entire stock of ammo of unknown quantity.

Also, regarding further ammo resupply the Czech Republic has a ready stock of 800,000 rounds of artillery shells made up of 500,000 155mm and 300,000 122mm. All they need is for someone to pay for it and then they can have them all delivered within a few weeks.
https://www.businessinsider.com/denm...sia-war-2024-2
https://www.defensemagazine.com/arti...ster-announces

Germany as part of its most recent arms package will send 14,000 155mm rounds and 4 WINSENT 1 MCV's etc.
https://www.armyrecognition.com/defe...o_ukraine.html

Netherlands has approved 100 million Euros for several 100,000's worth of artillery shells.
https://www.armyrecognition.com/defe...r_ukraine.html

And they're NOT done; it's not the DANA or DANA 2 it is a new system of SPA called the DITA. It has a 2-man crew with a fully automated turret/ROF 5 Rds. PM/Onboard 155mm Ammo 40 Rds./TATRA 8x8 w/ Tatra T3C-928-90 engine with 300 kW output, giving it a maximum speed of 90 km/h on roads and 25 km/h off-road, with a range of 600 kilometers. /Armored Cab and Turret etc. etc.
https://www.armyrecognition.com/defe...r_ukraine.html

Seems like we need a few more Female Prime Ministers and maybe a President here as they've been more aggressive in doing what's necessary to support the Ukraine to avoid a wider war which Germany and a couple of others think will happen by 2025/or 2026.

I hope they're wrong. I'm more about the old 1942 song written in response to the attack on Pearl Harbor; "Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition" to include Tanks/Tubes and everything else.

Concerning my Mets ball club, well they stayed undefeated while there and today when we left to head home yesterday morning. I guess we just have this "Aura" around us from today on we just wish them luck until the first "Subway Series" in the regular season, you see CINCLANTHOME is a true Yankee Fan!?!

Regards,
Pat

[MarkSheppard]

Hope nobody did any serious thought as to a icon/OOB slot for ERCA in the US OBAT.

https://www.defensenews.com/land/202...totype-effort/

The U.S. Army is changing its approach to acquiring a long-range artillery capability and scrapping its 58-caliber Extended Range Cannon Artillery prototyping effort, according to the service’s acquisition chief.

“We concluded the prototyping activity last fall,” Doug Bush told reporters at a March 8 briefing on the fiscal 2025 budget request. “Unfortunately, [it was] not successful enough to go straight into production.”

The new plan — following an “exhaustive” tactical fires study meant to revalidate elements of the extended-range cannon requirement led by Army Futures Command — is to evaluate existing options from industry this summer “to get a sense of the maturity of those systems.”

Of the 24 new Army systems slated to make it into the hands of soldiers by the end of 2023, only the Extended Range Cannon Artillery program missed that goal. The ERCA system uses a service-developed, 58-caliber gun tube mounted on the chassis of a BAE Systems-made Paladin Integrated Management howitzer.

The Army was building 20 prototypes of the ERCA system: two for destructive testing and the remaining 18 for a battalion.

The operational evaluation of ERCA revealed “engineering challenges,” Bush said a year ago. Observations in early testing of prototypes showed excessive wear on the gun tube after firing a relatively low number of rounds.

Army Futures Command leader Gen. James Rainey told Defense News last summer the service was working on a new conventional fires strategy expected by the end of the calendar year. The strategy would determine both capability and capacity of what exists and what the Army may need, Rainey said.

The strategy considered new technology to enhance conventional fires on the battlefield, such as advances in propellant that make it possible for midrange cannons to shoot as far as longer-range systems.

Depending on the artillery strategy’s conclusions, there are a variety of options the service could consider in order to fulfill the Army’s requirement for an extended-range cannon, Bush said.

The Army was able to conduct a variety of successful tests with ERCA prototypes, including hitting a target on the nose 70 kilometers (43 miles) away at Yuma Proving Ground, Arizona, in December 2020 using an Excalibur extended-range guided artillery shell.

The problems with the cannon were mostly related to the length of the gun tube and its ability to withstand a large number of projectiles without excessive wear to the gun tube.

The Army is racing to extend artillery ranges on the battlefield to take away advantages of high-end adversaries like Russia and China. The ERCA weapon was intended to be able to fire at and destroy targets from a position out of the range of enemy systems.

That requirement remains, Bush stressed last week.

The hope now is to find systems that currently exist and are capable. The Army would then choose one for production if it proves promising, Bush said.

“There [are] things people say, and then we need to actually do testing to make sure it’s true,” he explained.

“It’s a shift from developing something new to working with what is available both domestically and internationally to get the range,” he added, “because the fires study validated the range and volume are still needed, so we want to find a different way to get there.”

The Army is asking for $55 million in its FY25 budget to pursue the new effort to find an extended-range cannon capability.

The service also plans to continue developing new munitions it was already working on as part of the ERCA program, Bush noted.

[DRG]

Originally Posted by MarkSheppard

Hope nobody did any serious thought as to a icon/OOB slot for ERCA in the US OBAT.

Nope..........

[DRG]

In many ways this is a weapon system that is beyond the scope of the game........at best borderline

[MarkSheppard]

Originally Posted by DRG

In many ways this [Typhon] is a weapon system that is beyond the scope of the game........at best borderline

Revisiting this in light of the recent news that the Army will now deploy Typhon to Europe as well.

https://breakingdefense.com/2024/07/...e-its-borders/

WASHINGTON — Come 2026, the US Army can begin deploying some of its new, longer-range munitions to Germany under a new agreement the two nations inked ahead of the NATO summit.

“The United States will begin episodic deployments of the long-range fires capabilities of its Multi-Domain Task Force [MDTF] in Germany in 2026, as part of planning for enduring stationing of these capabilities in the future,” the White House announced in a statement today.

“When fully developed, these conventional long-range fires units will include SM-6, Tomahawk, and developmental hypersonic weapons, which have significantly longer range than current land-based fires in Europe,” it added.

While I agree with you that two (Tomahawk and future Hypersonic Weapon) of Typhon's missiles are beyond the scope of SPMBT; the third -- the SM-6 Standard Missile -- isn't.

The SM-6 is approximately 3,300 lb (1,500 kg) -- it's a very big, very long ranged missile -- comparable in size to Russian (OBAT11) Unit 294 - S-300PS which has the 5V55K S-300K weapon -- that specific Russian SAM is 3,260 lb (1,480 kg).

Additionally, SM-6 is the first major ARH SAM the US has (other than Patriot PAC-3 which is optimized more for ABM engagements) -- it has an enlarged, bigger AIM-120D seeker head; a big difference over classic PATRIOT.

US heavy SAMs have gone through three different generations of guidance:

Semi-Active Radar Homing (SARH) (Nike Ajax/Hercules) -- Radar on ground illuminates target, and missile homes in on reflected energy.

Track Via Missile (TVM) (PATRIOT PAC-1 & PAC-2) - Radar on ground illuminates target, and missile homes in on reflected energy; but can also transmit a digital "picture" of what it's seeing back to the ground unit, enabling it to deal with heavy clutter/jamming/ECM.

Active Radar Homing (ARH) (SM-6 / PATRIOT PAC-3 / S-400) -- In addition to the above modes; there's an active seeker in the missile, so the missile can autonomously home; as well as get a better picture from being much closer to the target than the launcher radar.

[whdonnelly]

Not sure if this is the right place to put this, but soon we might have some data points on the effectiveness.

https://www.thedefensepost.com/2024/...s-middle-east/