{"id":42594,"date":"2020-12-21T20:19:14","date_gmt":"2020-12-21T20:19:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2020\/12\/21\/army-long-range-cannon-gets-direct-hit-on-target-43-miles-away\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T23:33:47","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T23:33:47","slug":"army-long-range-cannon-gets-direct-hit-on-target-43-miles-away","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/land\/2020\/12\/21\/army-long-range-cannon-gets-direct-hit-on-target-43-miles-away\/","title":{"rendered":"Army long-range cannon gets direct hit on target 43 miles away"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 The Army\u2019s Extended Range Cannon Artillery (ERCA) system<\/a> under development hit a target 43 miles away \u2014 or 70 kilometers \u2014 on the nose at Yuma Proving Ground, Arizona, Dec. 19, using an Excalibur<\/a> extended-range guided artillery shell, according to the general who is overseeing the service\u2019s Long-Range Precision Fires modernization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think our adversaries have the ability to hit a target on the nose at 43 miles,\u201d Brig. Gen. John Rafferty, who is in charge of the effort, told a small group of reporters in a teleconference immediately following the test.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Army is racing to extend artillery ranges on the battlefield to take away advantages of high-end adversaries like Russia. The ERCA cannon<\/a>, when fielded, should be able to fire and take out targets from a position out of the range of enemy systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ERCA cannon takes an M109A7 Paladin Integrated Management (PIM) howitzer<\/a> chassis and replaces the 39-caliber gun tube with a 58-caliber, 30-foot one. Combined with Raytheon-made Excalibur munitions and an XM1113 using supercharged propellant, the Army has been able to dramatically boost artillery ranges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In March, the Army inched closer to the ultimate goal of 70 kilometers when it took two shots, both reaching 65 kilometers in range.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this test, the Army took three shots. The first shot came up short due to very high head winds at a high altitude and the second shot had a hardware failure, but the third shot proved that the service is getting closer to dialing in on the right balance between propellant, projectile design and other factors that play into achieving greater distances, Rafferty said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis demonstration is not a destination,\u201d Col. Tony Gibbs, the Army\u2019s program manager for combat artillery system, told reporters. \u201cThis is really just a waypoint in our ongoing campaign of learning as we work to really realign U.S. supremacy in cannon artillery. It\u2019s definitely a big knowledge point for us today.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each munition fired during Saturday\u2019s event had slight design differences to address how best to design and prepare the round to absorb the high-pressure and force of being fired at 1,000 meters per second from a gun tube of ERCA\u2019s caliber, Rafferty said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat was consistent was the propellant configuration,\u201d he added. \u201cSo we got that propellant configuration, I think dialed in really close down, which is great.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first shot, due to the winds, fell short by roughly 100 meters, which, Rafferty said, sounds like a lot, but is closer when considering when the munition has to travel 70,000 meters. The Army knew the first shot would come up short due to wind, but wanted to take it anyway in order to learn from it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second shot, the Army had modified the hardware configuration and experience a hardware failure, Gibbs confirmed. Specifically, the Army added an isolator for the inertial measurement unit, which is essentially a shock absorber to counter the pressure spike in the chamber.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe did have some concerns with the survivability of that,\u201d Rafferty said.<\/p>\n\n\n\t