{"id":53249,"date":"2020-03-11T14:58:51","date_gmt":"2020-03-11T14:58:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/uncategorized\/2020\/03\/11\/the-army-is-making-artillery-great-again\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T02:18:41","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T02:18:41","slug":"the-army-is-making-artillery-great-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/off-duty\/gearscout\/2020\/03\/11\/the-army-is-making-artillery-great-again\/","title":{"rendered":"The Army is \u2018making artillery great again\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Army completed a new test of the Extended Range Cannon Artillery system (ERCA), hitting a target over 40 miles away.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n

YUMA PROVING GROUND, Ariz. \u2013 More than two dozen people, soldiers and military contractors, fill the \u2018mission command\u2019 room here on a Friday morning. The terrace style seating ensured everyone had a view of the five large screen TVs stitched together at the front.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each screen showed a different view of the event in real time. An improved Paladin, self-propelled howitzer<\/a>, this one is known as \u2018Prototype Zero,\u2019 because it is the first to employ all the improvements needed to more than double the range of the cannon<\/a>, was about to launch a guided 155 mm projectile over 65 km in about four minutes to strike an tan sport utility vehicle alone on the Arizona desert.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

High-speed cameras with the weapon<\/a> capture the firing after countdown and follow the round into the air as it spins toward its target. Another digital display uses a series of radars to track the flight path while the round hurtles beyond 50,000 feet altitude.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another 166 cars are backed up on highway 95, which had also been closed down as it skirts the test range area. Though this round is guided, and its path only parallels the highway, a misguided shot could do serious damage should it stray off course and strike a passing minivan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On screen, the Paladin cannon roared, the muzzle flashed and the spinning 155mm projectile launched on its path.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cameras caught it mid-flight as radars began to track its flight overhead as the tan-colored Chevrolet suburban sat on the other end of that flight path. Minutes later, a voice began a 10-second countdown to impact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the round landed within 1 meter of the Suburban, the room erupted in cheers, the culmination of more than 18 months of planning, tooling and tinkering bringing dreams of the Extended Range Cannon Artillery program another step closer to reality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or, as the Vice Chief of Staff of the Army Gen. Joseph Martin said, \u201cWe\u2019re making artillery great again.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shortly after launching the first round, the crew loaded and launched the XM1113 Rocket Assisted Projectile the same 65km distance, officials said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ERCA program is one of a handful of Long Range Precision Fires pieces that the Army expects to use to outgun, outrange and outmatch Russia and China and anyone else on a future battlefield. They\u2019re also building a strategic cannon that could reach out to 1,000 km with the type of weapon that used to be carried only by ships or on rails.<\/p>\n\n\n\t