Thanks for the article Jonathan!
via Israeli Defense
Slowly but surely Lockheed Martin is dipping its toe into the armored vehicle market.
Revealed: US company Lockheed Martin, KMW of Germany and Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) have recently signed a cooperation agreement for joint production for the IDF, in the framework of the Israeli Artillery Corps’ next self-propelled gun, named Cardom.
The development began in the past few days after a decision was made in IDF Ground Forces Command to begin the replacement of the IDF’s self-propelled gun layout, already during the next five years. The IDF is interested in taking the M-109 cannon (“Doher") out of service, after being in IDF service for nearly 40 years. The Ground Forces Command is interested in a 52 caliber autonomous cannon with a 155mm barrel, high rate of fire, and a crew which is as small as needed for its operation.
In the framework of the new tender, IAI’s Land Division presented the new platform to the IDF. According to the agreement that was formulated in the past few days, the sel—propelled gun being offered to the IDF will be based on KMW’s AGM cannon, which is assembled on the body of an MLRS rocket launcher by Lockheed Martin. The production will be carried out by Lockheed Martin in the US, so that the project can be funded by US foreign defense aid.
With carefully selected partners. Partners that have a track record of success and combat proven vehicles, Lockheed Martin is making inroads.
The teaming with KMW and the teams selection of the AGM is a stroke of genius. The concept is simply brilliant. The idea of developing a gun module that is capable of being mounted on trucks, wheeled armored vehicles, tracked armored vehicles and even ships is mind blowing.
I like the concept and the project/contest is worth watching. Also interesting is the fact that Israel is sticking with mechanized artillery and not switching to towed versions. Israeli war fighting doctrine seems to have rejected the idea of light weight, wheel based formations in favor of heavy mechanized infantry units. I like it.
It's because Israel doesn't need "expeditionary" forces, as we plan to do most of our fighting in our back yard. No matter how you slice it, heavily armored and tracked forces are safer and have better tactical mobility.
ReplyDeleteDid anyone else think that was just a photoshop of a ships gun on a truck....
ReplyDeletethe photo i had trouble believing was the gun on the Boxer APC.
DeleteWith all those Merkava 1s, they could just stick that AGM turret atop it and have a well-armored arty system akin to the Soltam Sholef.
ReplyDeletespeaking of a ship's gun, perhaps this is better protected against sea conditions than the PzH2000 turret.
is it me or is anyone else troubled by the fact that US artillery is outclassed?
The '155mm on a truck' idea is getting a lot of traction lately. In addition to this Israeli one, there's the French Caesar (already adopted), the Bofors Archer (I think already adopted for Sweden and Norway) and of course the Czechs have been building them for years, starting out in 152mm.
ReplyDeleteI think it goes to some realistic thinking:
-- when are you going to fight someone whose counter battery is good enough to kill a lighter, truck mounted system but not good enough to kill a lightly armored SP gun? Very few nations can do widespread, rapid, accurate counter battery fire. If you have to shoot and scoot, trucks scoot just as fast as tracks.
-- How far off road do you really need to take a 155/52 system? The longer the range, the more flexibility you have in selecting firing positions.
-- The off road capability of high capacity trucks keeps improving. It's not as good as tracks, but the gap between a modern truck and an overloaded M109 chassis is a lot narrower than it used to be.
-- Cost: buying, and especially running, a heavy truck is a lot cheaper than even an M109 type vehicle, never mind something like the admittedly awesome PzH2000.