M1299 Extended Range Canon, the new "M109 makeover"?

[FJAG]

23 round magazine - grumble.

 

[ArmyRick]

23 round magazine - grumble.

Thats a very brief fire mission. Would need an ammo carrier?

 

[KevinB]

Update

US Army tested in Yuma the XM1299 artillery system prototypes

The US Army has conducted extensive testing to develop the XM1299 self-propelled howitzer. The tests took place at the Yuma Proving Ground, Ronkainen wrote.

bulgarianmilitary.com

It’s a pretty poorly researched or relayed article.
As the Archer is talks about replacing the M109A7 is actually in a different trial for the Stryker Brigade Arty.

Nothing on the ERCA they mentioned was new either, as it had been covered on earlier articles.

 

[KevinB]

Thats a very brief fire mission. Would need an ammo carrier?

All Arty need them

The issue is the ready round storage on board is limited for any SPA.
The size of the ERCA ammunition makes it less easy to fit a large bussle rack -

I’m always leery of autoloaders for Arty - and as Ukrainian usage has shown a lot of them have exceptional maintenance needs.

 

[FJAG]

Thats a very brief fire mission. Would need an ammo carrier?

That's always one of the reasons I do not get excited about glossy weapons' brochures. You need to understand the entire logistics system. It's not just that you need an ammo limber but how does it function? How much does it hold? How easily do rounds transfer from limber to gun? How easy is it to reload the magazines? or attach fuzes? can you do it under armour? etc. When you have a small magazine like that the next question is what is your onboad load? Smoke? Dumb HE? Precision rounds - guided? - GPS? Illumination? etc etc.

 

[GR66]

That's always one of the reasons I do not get excited about glossy weapons' brochures. You need to understand the entire logistics system. It's not just that you need an ammo limber but how does it function? How much does it hold? How easily do rounds transfer from limber to gun? How easy is it to reload the magazines? or attach fuzes? can you do it under armour? etc. When you have a small magazine like that the next question is what is your onboad load? Smoke? Dumb HE? Precision rounds - guided? - GPS? Illumination? etc etc.

Is there a certain point where the push to field the "perfect" extended range cannon actually becomes a reduction in capabilities? When you look at the weight, transportability, cost (system and ammo), reduced onboard ammo load and (pure conjecture here) a more advanced gun barrel which may have a reduced effective life over other systems which don't use such high pressure...could you get the same (or better) overall effects with a combination of lesser systems?

For the cost of a 6 gun battery of ERCA could you have instead a 6 gun battery of A7's, a HIMARS to strike those targets outside the A7's range and a C-RAM system to make up for the increased vulnerability from the A7's lesser engagement range?

I don't know where you draw the line as to where the advantages of a smaller number of "exquisite" systems vs a larger number of "good enough" systems, but we're seeing these questions asked in lots of areas where new technologies are being fielded (F-35s, CSCs, etc.).

 

[daftandbarmy]

Is there a certain point where the push to field the "perfect" extended range cannon actually becomes a reduction in capabilities? When you look at the weight, transportability, cost (system and ammo), reduced onboard ammo load and (pure conjecture here) a more advanced gun barrel which may have a reduced effective life over other systems which don't use such high pressure...could you get the same (or better) overall effects with a combination of lesser systems?

For the cost of a 6 gun battery of ERCA could you have instead a 6 gun battery of A7's, a HIMARS to strike those targets outside the A7's range and a C-RAM system to make up for the increased vulnerability from the A7's lesser engagement range?

I don't know where you draw the line as to where the advantages of a smaller number of "exquisite" systems vs a larger number of "good enough" systems, but we're seeing these questions asked in lots of areas where new technologies are being fielded (F-35s, CSCs, etc.).

Based on the serviceability issues we're seeing in Ukraine with the guns these days, we'd probably be better off going back to the 25 Pounder.

My Dad told me that they used to test them by chucking them over a cliff, and then firing them afterwards.