Land Warfare: BAE Systems refines M777 pitch | ADM Mar 08
BAE Systems Australia had an M777A2 field gun on its stand at LWC, and the company is refining its sales pitch for the towed artillery component of the Army's Project Land 17.
The M777 is currently in service in Afghanistan with the US MarineCorps and Canadian Armed Forces, and is now also firing Raytheon's Excalibur 155mm smart munition.
The -A2 Excel variant is fully integrated with Raytheon's AFATDS fire control system and this is the version the company has offered to the Australian Army.
Also part of the M777A2 package is the Towed Artillery Digitisation Display (TADD), which integrates a SINCGARS radio, muzzle velocity radar, INS and GPS, a computer and ruggedised monitor.
BAE Systems says the gun has displayed exemplary reliability.
During Operational test & Evaluation four guns between fired some 14,000 rounds, achieving 200-300 rounds per gun per day.
The threshold figure for reliability testing was 800 fault-free rounds; BAE's objective was 900 rounds and the gun demonstrated 1,200 rounds, according to the company.
Some 84 guns were manufactured under the Low-rate Initial production (LRIP) contract; these were standard M777s; a further 495 have been ordered under Full rate Manufacturing (FRP) contracts, of which some 200 had been delivered to the US Army, marines and Canadian Armed Forces by the time of LWC 07; these were manufactured to M777A1 configuration, incorporating the TADD digitisation functionality, and all of the LRIP batch have been upgraded to -A1 standard.
The Cradle of the M777, which incorpoprates a high proportion of titanium for lightness, is manuyfactured in the UK.
The rest of the gun, including the barrel, is manufactured in the US at Hattiesburg, Mississippi.
The RFT for Land 17 closed on November 7, with an RFT expected early in 2008.
At the time of writing no RFT had emerged.
The company had not disclosed its plans for providing in-service support for the M777 in Australia if this wins the towed artillery contest under Land 17.
Copyright - Australian Defence Magazine, March 2008