Indirect Fires Modernization Project - C3/M777 Replacement

[Kirkhill]

I know I'm being contrarian here, but why should a missile with an 80 lb payload cost USD 150,000. Explosives are cheap. Solid-propellant rocket motors flying at Mach 0.7 are well known and cheap. Ramjets are even faster. The electronics doing guidance do not have to withstand much shock and should be cheap. And the body is just some stamped sheet metal.

I Know, I know. We're in the world of the $2,000 hammer but while this is rocket science, it's not "rocket science."

Consider the price of a Javelin ATGM. It is somewhere in the 200,000 range for a 19 lb warhead delivered to a maximum range of 5 km.

JAGM is 300,000 for 8 km.

 

[Kirkhill]

the questions isn’t the cost it’s the use case. What does that 80 lb Mach .7 missile do for us, and what do we give up to have people man and operate that systems.

I think we are starting to overlap with this observation.

Army “Absolutely Needs” Drones Like Russia's Shahed-136: 25th Infantry Division Commander

The commanding general of the Hawaii-based 25th Infantry Division is the latest U.S. Army senior officer to push for long-range one-way attack drones. The commanding general of the Hawaii-based 25th Infantry Division is the latest U.S. Army senior officer to push for long-range one-way attack...

www.twz.com

The Shahed is 110 lb to 2500 km at 185 km/h.

I think I would be right in suggesting the Shahed target sets (military, not civilian) would previously have been helicopter targets. These new, cheaper missiles are pushing depth targets further back which both extends your logistics and the enemy's.

Concurrently, all that range means being able to apply effects across a broader front with impacts (sorry) on dispersal.

 

[Kirkhill]

The US Army is pushing for munitions that can extend the range of their cannons.
They are striving for 150 km.
But it seems that the only way they can get there is by propelling the rounds by rocket or ramjet.

If that is the case why worry about constraining the round's dimensions by the gun? Why worry about having to over-engineer the projectile to withstand the shocks of launch?
Why worry about wear and tear on rifled barrels from these projectiles?

Why not just focus on guns doing what guns have been demonstrated to do well, deliver volume to the close battle?

Rely on cheap rockets/ramjets/jets/props for ranges beyond the guns?

 

[Kirkhill]

Competitors..

AUSA 2025: Anduril’s Barracuda-500 Redefines Logistics for Modular Long-Range Strike

Anduril’s Barracuda-500 promises 500+ nm range and 100+ lb payload with air, palletized, and surface launch options, pitched as a mass-producible long-range str

armyrecognition.com

Ragnarok Mini-Cruise Missile With Big Range Targets $150K Price Tag

Kratos has unveiled its low-cost cruise missile that it says can fly a whopping 500 nautical miles while carrying an 80-pound payload.

www.twz.com

 

[Kirkhill]

Cost of a rocket vs a guided rocket

~2800 USD for a 70 mm rocket with an unguided ballistic range of 8 to 12 km when carrying warheads in the 10 to 20 lb range.

Adding a guidance kit and proximity fuse increases the price to something in the 30,000 USD range.

....

A dumb 155mm round costs something like 3,000 to 10,000 USD.
The M1156 kit costs between 6,500 and 13,000 USD apiece
Excalibur costs have ranged between 65,000 and 150,000

.....

250,000 will buy you 5 micro turbine jets a gas tank and a set of controls that you can strap on your back.
Jet engines can be bought for 2,000 USD.

All the costs are in the guidance/avionics end of things.


And the cost of labour and QA.


.....


That is why Kratos is looking at supplying CCAs for prices comparable to the Tomahawk in the 1 to 4 million USD range while its competitors are struggling to achieve 40,000,000.