The Army has a new cannon
 

that can hit a target 43 miles away.

<iframe width="1135" height="638" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/RO6U_VihDuQ" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Funny you should mention this.

Development was through the CFT team at Ft Sill. Next step is an auto loader for 10 rounds a minute. Lawton is setting up a FISTA program to bring the various developers togethers in one place. The reason the city is buying the local mall.

https://www.kswo.com/2020/03/06/fort-sills-long-range-precision-fires-cft-tests-new-weapon-system/

That’s cool as hell. In a past job I won some actuator work on the PIM program.

Paladin?

Video is gone already.

EDIT:

New link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RO6U_VihDuQ&feature=emb_err_woyt

Is isn't gone...they just want it watched on YouTube.

I imagine that the cost differential between this and a drone strike is significant. I realize a drone can reach places the tank can't but this is an amazing weapon. If it can target a vehicle imagine what it could do to the mouth of a cave.

How far do the big guns on a battleship shoot? As I remember they were over the horizon distances with a VW bug sized projectile. Of course you need a battleship to move them around and they are not gonna work 100 miles from the coast.

That is a cool gun. I have been at Ft Sill long ago when they had a demonstration day and fired some big guns. It is one of the places in Oklahoma that has been there long before there was an Oklahoma. Founded in 1869, it was not in a friendly environment when founded.

Battleship can fire about 20 to 25 miles. I think the M777 howitzer has a range of 15 to 20 miles. I hear them pounding all the time.

A few years back I was camping at the refuge and Sill was having a night fire exercise. We could see the horizon light up when they fired to our west. Hear the shells fly by to our south. And then the impacts to the east. It went on for about an hour. A least a 100 rounds. A minimum of 10 miles.

On another time I was driving out the the refuge on highway 115. 115 divides the Sill firing range.

About halfway there the MP's stopped us. They told us they were about to fire several racks of MLRS across the road. The MLRS were set up about 100 yards off the road. After a couple of minutes they unloaded. We had ringside seats.

Every month or so they launch just north of my house and I can hear the WHOOSH as they fire north towards Elgin.

Against drones, there are counter-measures. With artillery....not so much. Once the projectile has left the barrel, nothing can stop it. Also, artillery can be remarkably accurate.

They will target the cannon with UAS 0r manned platforms.

Not true at all. Flying IED's that scare the crap out of all the services. I have worked on numerous counter UAS programs.

I'll post some stuff I am doing with the Army on Missile Launched UAS Swarms. We are under contract so I'll need to ask.

It is self propelled so they will use it like MLRS. Launch and then haul ass before the rounds even land.

PIM is the latest and greatest version, it’s for Paladin Integrated Management. I made some visits to BAE Systems which was pretty cool.

IIRC when I was a surveyor/mapmaker in the USMC in 1970 our 175 mm guns could hit a 55 gallon drum 23 miles away, using only maps, survey transits and weather ballons to figure out where we were and where the target was. That was 50 years ago.

VW bug weight, not size.


Although, size would be awesome. :eek:

Cool? I'd surmise that depends on whether you're on the delivering or receiving end. :rolleyes:

How much of the 43 miles is the self propelled/guided missile vs the initial thrust from the cannon?

Here's some PIM data. They have been working on it a few years.

https://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/1019512.pdf

Also used to work in the long range weaponry field. We were already reliably and repeatedly hitting 45 miles (73km) in the late nineties, and later even 60 miles, though the laws of physics made that not so repeatable. There is something truly awesome about being able to reach out and "touch" an enemy from a clear blue sky at that range!

https://military.wikia.org/wiki/G6_howitzer

Block of salt and all:

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/19460/u-s-army-forges-ahead-with-its-railgun-as-navys-commitment-to-the-tech-is-questioned

I think that's the only thing i miss about sill. Constant artillery. Buildings shaking. Barracks shaking. Was fun.