In partnership with the US Army’s Combat Capabilities Development Command Armaments Center (DEVCOM AC), BAE Systems has test fired the 155 mm XM1155-SC sub-calibre guided projectile the furthest distance an M109 Paladin self-propelled howitzer (SPH) has ever fired such a round, the company announced on 9 October 2023.
The test firing, which took place at Yuma Proving Ground, Arizona, saw the projectile successfully guide itself to and strike the target area using GPS, demonstrating the added capability the round can deliver to the US Army’s current howitzer fleet.
BAE declined, however, to specify when the test firing took place and exactly what range the XM1155-SC projectile reached, although the M109A6 Paladin is known to have a range of 24.7 km with standard projectiles and 30 km with rocket-assisted projectiles.
The XM1155-SC is a guided hypervelocity round designed to defeat fixed and moving targets. It is intended to double the range of cannon artillery, have improved lethality through being highly manoeuvrable with a short time of flight, and is designed to be operate in a contested environment.
“Our XM1155-SC solution adds additional capability to current and future US Army artillery systems,” Brent Butcher, vice president and general manager of Weapon Systems at BAE Systems, was quoted as saying in a company press release. “We’re just getting started showing the advanced capabilities that this round brings to the warfighter. This projectile delivers a leap forward in performance and modernisation. This successful firing and previous test results show that our concept is on track to provide range and lethality overmatch to the US Army brigade and division artillery units.”
In December 2022 in partnership with the US Army, BAE Systems held the first XM1155-SC test firing, in which the projectile was successfully fired from a 155 mm XM907E2 Extended Range Cannon Artillery (ERCA) test bed and struck a fixed target beyond ranges previously demonstrated by other precision-guided projectiles fired from the same type of cannon. The successful firing event occurred just 14 months after the company received an initial USD 14.8 M (EUR 14 M) prototype development award in October 2021.
The XM1155-SC projectile addresses the US Army’s modernisation goals for a long-range precision fires munitions solution. BAE Systems is currently under contract to demonstrate navigation and control, networking, and payload technologies that enable precision fires at very long ranges for 155 mm projectiles.
