BAE Systems has successfully fired a Sub-Caliber Artillery Long-Range Projectile with Enhanced Lethality from a 155 mm XM907E2 58 calibre cannon, the company announced on 29 March 2023.
The test firing, recently conducted at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, in partnership with the US Army, struck a fixed target beyond ranges previously demonstrated by other precision-guided munitions (PGMs) fired from the same type of cannon, the company stated. The test used a US Army-designed sabot package and confirmed the projectile’s compatibility with the 155 mm Extended Range Cannon Artillery (ERCA) Howitzer Test Bed and its propelling charges.
The Sub-Caliber Artillery Long-Range Projectile is BAE Systems’ concept for the US Army’s XM1155 sub-calibre programme and addresses the US Army’s modernisation goals for a long-range precision fires munitions solution.
“This successful test confirms our Sub-Caliber Artillery Long-Range Projectile with Enhanced Lethality can defeat long-range targets and advance to follow-on testing out to double the range of existing guided projectile and with sensors to find fixed and moving targets of interest,” Brent Butcher, vice president and general manager of Weapon Systems at BAE Systems, was quoted as saying in a company press release. “We are confident that the projectile is on track to provide the army the best munitions solution for cannon artillery with a leap-ahead capability that will bring a highly lethal, maneuverable projectile to soldiers on the battlefield.”
BAE Systems’ concept for the XM1155-SC programme is an advanced, cannon-launched projectile under development for the defeat of fixed and moving targets in contested environments at more than double the range of existing cannon-launched PGMs. As the latest PGM in the Hypervelocity Projectile family of munitions, the concept was developed to penetrate and destroy adversary defences through increased range, advanced guidance, lethality, and survivability, the company noted.
BAE Systems noted that for the past several years it has invested in the innovation, development and testing of advanced long-range precision fires solutions and has completed more than 100 PGM tests. In early 2022 the predecessor to the XM1155-SC concept, BAE Systems’ Extended Range Hypervelocity Projectile (HVP-ER), successfully destroyed a target at a range of more than 110 km.
BAE Systems is currently under contract with the US Army to develop and test the projectile as part of the army’s XM1155 Extended Range Artillery Projectile programme.
Peter Felstead
