BAE Systems bucks trend by picking up a US Army M777 towed howitzer contract

BAE Systems has been awarded a contract worth USD 162 million (EUR 143 million) by the US Army for M777 lightweight howitzer major structures, the company announced on 15 April 2025.

BAE Systems has already begun work on the programme, working with its supply chain in the US and the UK to produce the titanium structures, which form the basis of the gun. The initial work started under an undefinitized contract action (UCA) awarded in December 2023, which has now been finalised.

The first major structures will be produced at BAE Systems’ new multi-million-pound artillery development and production facility in Sheffield, UK, as well as within the US supply chain and will start to be delivered in 2026.

At half the weight of other 155 mm towed howitzers, the M777 is consequently more easily deployable. More than 1,250 M777s are in service with ground forces in the United States, Canada, Australia, India and Ukraine.

However, while BAE Systems stating in a press release that “the restart of M777 production presents a unique opportunity for new and existing users of the lightweight howitzer to benefit from a hot production line and economies of scale”, the demand for towed howitzers is not what it once was. Among the lessons drawn from the war in Ukraine is that towed artillery, which cannot immediately ‘shoot and scoot’, is particularly susceptible to being targeted by an adversary deploying counter-battery radar systems.

At the Association of the US Army’s Global Force 2024 symposium, held in Huntsville, Alabama, from 26-28 March that year, the head of US Army Futures Command, General James Rainey, told the audience, “I personally believe that we have witnessed the end of the effectiveness of towed artillery; the future is not bright for towed artillery.”

March 2024 saw the US Army halt work on its Extended Range Cannon Artillery (ERCA) prototyping effort, which would have added a longer-range gun to the army’s Paladin M109A7 self-propelled howitzer. The army’s requirement for a longer-range howitzer remains, but any off-the-shelf solution will be self-propelled.