Damn.
- The Army’s new Extended Range Cannon Artillery (ERCA) has now hit a record 43 miles.
- That’s the longest verified distance for a U.S. military howitzer.
- But a new Russian howitzer might be able to shoot just as far, if not farther.The U.S. Army has dramatically increased the range of its howitzer guns, setting a new distance record.
In a new test, the Extended Range Cannon Artillery (ERCA) gun fired a precision-guided shell to a range of 43 miles, or enough to shell Washington D.C. from Baltimore. The Army says the gun now holds the world record for precision strikes ... but a new Russian howitzer could soon challenge that.
The Army conducted the test, according to Defense News, at Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona, firing an M109A7 Paladin Integrated Management (PIM) howitzer fitted with a longer, 58-caliber gun. (In field artillery, “caliber” refers to the length of the gun barrel and not the diameter of the bore. The 155-millimeter diameter of the barrel is multiplied by 58 to determine the overall length of the barrel, or 29.49 feet.) A longer barrel allows expanding gases triggered by the shell powder to act upon the projectile for a greater period of time, increasing velocity.
The other half of ERCA is a new “supercharged” propellant formulation designed to increase pressure inside the barrel.
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The two new technologies combined to allow the Army to fire a GPS-guided “Excalibur” artillery round to a total of 43 miles. The ERCA test involved firing three rounds; one missed due to high winds, and the second missed due to a hardware failure. The third, however, hit the target.
ERCA nearly doubles the range of existing Army howitzers. According to the Army, the existing M109A7 Paladin self-propelled howitzer can send Excalibur rounds to 39.3 kilometers (24.4 miles), which ERCA can now lob to 43 miles.
Excalibur is a Raytheon-developed shell with jam-resistant GPS, guidance fins, and a unitary high explosive warhead. First fielded in the early 2010s, new versions of Excalibur can strike a target within...
This content is imported from {embed-name}. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.
The two new technologies combined to allow the Army to fire a GPS-guided “Excalibur” artillery round to a total of 43 miles. The ERCA test involved firing three rounds; one missed due to high winds, and the second missed due to a hardware failure. The third, however, hit the target.
ERCA nearly doubles the range of existing Army howitzers. According to the Army, the existing M109A7 Paladin self-propelled howitzer can send Excalibur rounds to 39.3 kilometers (24.4 miles), which ERCA can now lob to 43 miles.
Excalibur is a Raytheon-developed shell with jam-resistant GPS, guidance fins, and a unitary high explosive warhead. First fielded in the early 2010s, new versions of Excalibur can strike a target within...
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2 comments:
I, mostly, trust US testing. Mostly. I absolutely do not trust Russian testing. They have improved since the USSR, that way. They haven't improved enough to trust yet. Everything out of Russia and China is propaganda, if Russia has some added honesty. Not a lot, just some more. NorK too, every socialist nation, including many NATO nations. Of course, as socialist as America has become, maybe I need to stop trusting the US .mil too?
Caliber is the diameter of the bore, CALIBERS is the length of the barrel.
Calibre is an free library app.
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