The Army has seen a “significant number” of companies interested in its new effort to get after extending the range of its cannon artillery, with the service’s acquisition noting a potential competition could begin in fiscal year 2025.
Doug Bush, assistant secretary of the Army for acquisition, logistics and technology, estimated around eight or nine firms have indicated they may participate in demonstrations planned this summer to showcase offerings to inform the next-generation howitzer initiative.
“[We want] to understand what’s available today from both domestic and foreign sources. That would set conditions for potentially a competition in FY ‘25 that would lead to production after that,” Bush told reporters on Thursday.
The Army recently announced it ended development of the Extended Range Cannon Artillery (ERCA) future howitzer system and will be pivoting to a new approach that will look to consider industry’s more mature, existing capabilities, with plans to hold demonstrations this summer (Defense Daily, March 12).
The ERCA development effort had focused around integrating an Army-developed 58-caliber, 30-foot gun tube on BAE Systems’ M109A7 self-propelled howitzer chassis with an aim to develop a system capable of hitting targets out to 70 kilometers at a rate of six to 10 rounds per minute.
Bush said the Army will use the FY ‘24 funding that would have gone to ERCA development to fund the upcoming demonstration activities, while noting the service’s requirements community is still working through the specifics on the approach it plans to take for the new effort.
“There’s some things we just don’t know yet, though. The plan is not completely firmed up yet beyond the demonstration,” Bush said.
The Army recently held a virtual industry day to begin discussing the new approach to howitzer modernization, with plans to gather information on potential offerings with an upcoming Request for Information.
A BAE Systems official told Defense Daily in late March there was potential interest in pursuing the Army’s new effort, adding the company may look to offer capabilities such as the M109-52 self-propelled howitzer that utilizes Rheinmetall’s L52 155mm, 52-caliber cannon or the Archer mobile artillery system, if the Army goes in a wheeled howitzer direction (Defense Daily, April 2).
“It’s pretty obvious to me that we’re going to have to look at it pretty hard. And the reason I say that is [because] every howitzer the U.S. Army owns, we build it. We feel like this is kind of our space, so it’s going to be important to understand what the Army wants and make sure that we have a way to compete in that space. So, certainly inside the business it’s a pretty important focus area for us,” Jim Miller, BAE Systems’ vice president of business development for combat mission systems, said in an interview.