Army researchers expect to deliver cannons and missiles that can shoot farther, more accurately and with more lethality, beginning with extended-range projectiles, next year.
Maj. Gen. Cedric Wins, commanding general of the Army’s Research, Development and Engineering Command, gave attendees at this year’s AUSA annual meeting a brief overview of his command’s upcoming developments.
To regain overmatch in long-range precision fires, Wins said that two areas will be a focus – extended range cannon artillery and the projectiles that artillery fires.
Some of those extended range projectiles, which will be able to be fired from existing systems, will be demonstrated next year, the two-star said.
Michael Richman, a researcher with the armaments branch of RDECOM, said the command is developing flexible long-range weapons with a reduced dependence on Global Positioning Systems for targeting, multi-purpose payloads and pushing forward propulsion system technology.
Testing on some of those capabilities will likely be demonstrated by fiscal year 2021.
The work will include adapting the existing High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, which is used by both the Army and Marine Corps.
They expect that system to be ready for demonstration by fiscal year 2023.
At the same time, his team is focused on a “low-cost, extended-range air defense” capability that would create a common front end so that it could be used for multiple missions across multiple platforms.
Todd South has written about crime, courts, government and the military for multiple publications since 2004 and was named a 2014 Pulitzer finalist for a co-written project on witness intimidation. Todd is a Marine veteran of the Iraq War.
