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Indirect Fires Modernization Project - C3/M777 Replacement

Kirkhill said:
www.zona-militar.com

For €1.2 Billion, Germany Confirms the Purchase of Its First 84 RCH 155 Wheeled Self-Propelled Howitzers

As part of a plan to strengthen and modernize its artillery capabilities, Germany has confirmed the purchase of its first 84 RCH 155 wheeled
www.zona-militar.com www.zona-militar.com

The Germans are paying 1.2 BEURO for 84 RCH155s. That corresponds to our stated IFM plan for 80 to 98 SP 155s (5 or 6 Regiments)

That's about 2 BCAD for 84 or 20 to 25 MCAD apiece.
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Sounds about right. According to Wikipedia a RCH-155 costs €14.3 MEURO each (2025 estimate). That works out to $23 MCDN.
 
FJAG said:
An interesting article on the build up of the 2 MDTF in Germany.



More on the Mid-range Capability System here.



🍻
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defensescoop.com

Army issues RFIs for Common Autonomous Multi-Domain Launcher program

The Army’s new portfolio acquisition executive for fires issued RFIs to industry as it looks to advance the Common Autonomous Multi-Domain Launcher (CAML) initiative.
defensescoop.com defensescoop.com

Three RFIs issued back on Dec 1 for delivery in 12 to 18 months

RFI I - an autonomous PLS truck

“The scope of this effort is to design, build, test and deliver: 1) a CAML autonomous mobility platform, 2) a convoy leader vehicle capable of leading more than two CAML autonomous mobility platforms, and 3) a vehicle autonomy command and control (C2) system, all within 12-18 months,”

“autonomous mobility platform” that could function in three different modes: convoy mode for following a crewed vehicle, waypoint following mode, and a more manual “optionally piloted” mode.

Officials are keen on commercial and “near-commercial” solutions, noting in the RFI that the CAML platforms aren’t required to be standard Army-inventory vehicles.

For the CAML initiative, the service wants uncrewed vehicles that can support 40,000 to 60,000-pound palletized payloads without trailers.

“CAML autonomous mobility platforms will be designed with a reload architecture that will autonomously load/unload payloads with no human intervention,” officials wrote, noting that the vehicles need to be able to support “a wide range of pallet weight distribution and dynamics to accommodate different types of palletized payloads, including payloads that elevate and significantly shift weight distribution.”

RFI 2 - a palletized TEL system

RFI 3 - an integrator.

......

www.army.mil

Army developing new iterations of autonomous missile launcher

REDSTONE ARSENAL, Ala. — A major milestone has been achieved for the Autonomous Multi-Domain Launcher as it moves toward augmenting — and possibly repla...
www.army.mil www.army.mil
www.twz.com

Autonomous Launchers Make Impact As Army Requirements Grow

Missile-armed autonomous launchers from Oshkosh Defense and Raytheon DeepFires were out in force at the Association of the U.S. Army’s (AUSA) main annual symposium. Missile-armed autonomous launchers from Oshkosh Defense and Raytheon DeepFires were out in force at the Association of the U.S...
www.twz.com www.twz.com

CAML-L .... JLTV with a HIMARS pod
CAML-M .... FMTV with a pair of HIMARS pods
CAML-H .... HEMTV with 4 Tomahawk or Patriot cells.
 
militarnyi.com

How Much Do Domestically Produced 155-mm Shells Cost? Ukrainian Armor Reveals the Prices - Militarnyi

It has been revealed how much 155-mm artillery shells manufactured in Ukraine cost
militarnyi.com militarnyi.com

Ukrainian domestic prices

2500 Euro for an M107
3000 Euro for an L15
5500 Euro for long range shells

Per BAE re the L15

Our 155mm Artillery Shell L15 High Explosive (HE) Designed for use with a range of 155mm guns, this shell combines advanced technology with logistic simplicity, giving the user higher performance, in a cost effective manner. It comprises of a high tensile, steel body and is fitted with a user-selected fuze, for greater operational flexibility. The shell body features a thin wall, which is optimised for high fragmentation and blast effect. XL12E1 High Explosive (HE) Extended Range (ER) Based on a mature design, with a shell body adapted from the L15 High Explosive (HE) shell. A screw-on base bleed unit can be used to optimise range extension whilst maximising lethality.

 
1 Gun
4 Trucks

The Ukrainians are turning out guns faster than they can find appropriate trucks on which to mount them

militarnyi.com

Ukrainian Bohdana Self-Propelled Artillery Systems Are Already Being Assembled on Four Different Chassis - Militarnyi

In Ukraine, four different types of chassis are used for the Bohdana artillery system in order to increase the production rate of self-propelled guns.
militarnyi.com militarnyi.com

“Our manufacturer of Bohdana self-propelled guns has scaled up production to such an extent that the bottleneck has become the supply of chassis, not artillery systems,” Belbas noted.
 
I’d like to remind the 105 fans that one reason Ukraine likes them is there is a fairly large stockpile of ammo as most of NATO has reduce the 105mm to very niche roles.

It isn’t a practical front line gun at this point - regardless of mounted or towed.
 
" “The Government intends to award one contract to a single vendor via a competitive technical evaluation,” the posting read. "


breakingdefense.com

Army seeks to award self-propelled howitzer contract by July, prototype request coming soon - Breaking Defense

The race to get the new combat vehicle was originally planned to kick off about a year ago, but was pushed off due to the Army Transformation Initiative.
breakingdefense.com breakingdefense.com



" The Army’s new howitzer program, set to replace the towed M777 howitzers, began after it scrapped its internal development of the Extended Range Cannon Artillery platform and began searching for existing self-propelled howitzers in 2024.

" As the service wrote in an industry day posting in December, the vehicles will initially replace M777s within Stryker Brigade Combat Teams, then Mobile and Infantry Brigade Combat Teams. "

..............

One system for Strykers and Lights/Mobiles? And Heavies?

I can almost see a heavily armoured track working with entrenched light troops. But in support of air portable and fast moving wheeled troops manoeuvering at pace?
 
Kirkhill said:
One system for Strykers and Lights/Mobiles? And Heavies?

I can almost see a heavily armoured track working with entrenched light troops. But in support of air portable and fast moving wheeled troops
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It's been a long and failed winding road for the US indirect fire modernization process. It all started with the non line of site-cannon but ERCA's barrel wouldn't cut it. The an commitment to start upgrading M109A6 to A7 - which is almost half way to converting the 6-700 they have in active service (with another 800 or so in storage). Then they wanted wheeled SPs for the Stryker brigades under the and to keep M777s for the IBCTs. That bumbled around for a year or so and now they're not so sure they'll even keep SBCTs. At least one active army and two NG SBCTs are converting to MBCTs.

So now its just self-propelled howitzer-modernization (SPG-M) which seems to be opening up things for a general program of upgrading to an off-the-shelf L-52 or better barrel. BAE is working hard on M109-52 and if they can find a cheap path to it from existing M109 sets then that seems likely - but that doesn't solve the light air droppable solution - unless you just keep using a few M777s for that - or you start realizing air drops are few and far between and start wondering how many airborne divisions you really need and just go MBCTs with SPGs - Oh. Well.

My hope is for IFM sorting itself out soon and buying something while we're all still young.

🍻
 
FJAG said:
It's been a long and failed winding road for the US indirect fire modernization process. It all started with the non line of site-cannon but ERCA's barrel wouldn't cut it. The an commitment to start upgrading M109A6 to A7 - which is almost half way to converting the 6-700 they have in active service (with another 800 or so in storage). Then they wanted wheeled SPs for the Stryker brigades under the and to keep M777s for the IBCTs. That bumbled around for a year or so and now they're not so sure they'll even keep SBCTs. At least one active army and two NG SBCTs are converting to MBCTs.

So now its just self-propelled howitzer-modernization (SPG-M) which seems to be opening up things for a general program of upgrading to an off-the-shelf L-52 or better barrel. BAE is working hard on M109-52 and if they can find a cheap path to it from existing M109 sets then that seems likely - but that doesn't solve the light air droppable solution - unless you just keep using a few M777s for that - or you start realizing air drops are few and far between and start wondering how many airborne divisions you really need and just go MBCTs with SPGs - Oh. Well.

My hope is for IFM sorting itself out soon and buying something while we're all still young.

🍻
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I am wondering if the air transportable forces (parachute, heliborne and air-landing) can make do with drones, LAMs and LRPFs and an assortment of armed UGVs until they can get the C17s on the ground to deliver some heavy tracks and start building up forces.
 
Kirkhill said:
I am wondering if the air transportable forces (parachute, heliborne and air-landing) can make do with drones, LAMs and LRPFs and an assortment of armed UGVs until they can get the C17s on the ground to deliver some heavy tracks and start building up forces.
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I am wondering if the kinds of missions suitable for air transportable forces in current environments are mostly below the scale of conflict which requires a lot of artillery.
 
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