THE KING OF BATTLE GETS STRONGER
Although grenades dispensed in large numbers from artillery projectiles or rockets have a very high military utility, rounds now in the U.S. stockpile do not meet the Office of the Secretary of Defense’s goal of less than 1 percent unexploded ordnance.
Another concept, resembling the legacy DPICM munitions, is the DPICM XL. Tis munition contains 60 submunitions, each equipped with a high-reliability fuzing system with redundant systems to ensure that
it detonates as planned.
Target sets include personnel, light mate- riel and up to medium armored targets, accomplished with an advanced war- head designed to penetrate the skin of an armored vehicle. Both PRAXIS and DPICM XL are designed to meet the policy of less than 1 percent UXO.
To address extended-range capabilities, ARDEC is developing a rocket-assisted projectile that is capable of attaining ranges as far as 24 miles from the U.S. Army’s 39-caliber weapon system, the XM1113. With lethality equal to the leg- acy M549A1 but exceeding its range by at least six miles, this projectile is under consideration as part of the C-DAEM suite of munitions. It contains a single warhead that will not leave behind sub- munition UXO. For improved accuracy, the program is working to obtain com- patibility qualification with the PGK fuze.
NAVY, INDUSTRY ALSO WEIGH IN Te Office of Naval Research, working with Naval Sea Systems Command, is also developing its own concept for area effects: the High Reliability DPICM
82
Replacement. It is a cargo projectile, similar to DPICM XL, that addresses area effects and poorly located targets with a large number of submunitions. Each submunition will be highly reliable and outfitted with advanced electrical fuzing technologies, designed to exceed 99 percent compliance with the U.S. UXO policy.
Industry has offered several concepts for
the C-DAEM program, including
advanced unitary warheads that would not create submunition UXO. Orbital ATK Inc.’s Lethality Enhanced Ordnance concept uses a noncluster munition con- cept warhead inside a 155 mm projectile. Raytheon Missile Defense has various concepts, leveraging fielded 155 mm Excalibur variants.
Foreign concepts under evaluation include SMArt155, a German sensor-fuzed muni- tion that is similar to BONUS MkII and SADARM. SMArt155 is able to engage and defeat poorly located heavy armor targets using two EFP submunitions. Each submunition uses both infrared and millimeter-wave
radar systems to
locate targets and contains two seekers, enabling operation in heavy countermea- sure environments. Similar to BONUS, SMArt155 has been previously evalu- ated and demonstrated in U.S. Army 39- caliber weapon systems.
CONCLUSION Artillery, the king of battle, will soon have modernized assets that will perform effectively in longer-range missions, with increased lethality. New and improved munitions within the C-DAEM portfo- lio will offer versatile artillery capabilities to combat both near-term and future engagements with precision area effects and against threats from personnel to heavy armor. Overall readiness will be improved with newer munitions that offer increased reliability over the legacy cluster munition stockpile. PEO Ammunition is actively working with industry, govern- ment science and technology centers and foreign partners to quickly field combat multipliers to maintain U.S. dominance for indirect fire for decades to come.
For more information, go to http://www.
pica.army.mil/peoammo/;
https://
picac2cs9.pica.army.mil/pmcas/; or
http://www.ardec.army.mil/.
MR. PETER BURKE is the deputy
project manager for Combat Ammunition Systems under PEO Ammunition. He is a graduate of the Harvard Business School’s General Management Program, and he holds an MBA from the Florida Institute of Technology and a B.S. in industrial engineering from the New Jersey Institute of Technology. He is Level III certified in program management and in engineering, and is a member of the Army Acquisition Corps.
MS. TARA SARRUDA works for the Cannon Artillery Division at ARDEC, serving as chief engineer for the C-DAEM program. She holds an M.S. in mechani- cal
engineering manufacturing systems
from the Stevens Institute of Technology and a B.S. in mechanical engineering from Lafayette College. She is Level III certified in systems engineering.
Army AL&T Magazine
October-December 2017
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