All the competitors are 155mm howitzers mounted on trucks \u2013 typically six or eight-wheeled \u2013 and it\u2019s an increasingly crowded field. While the Army isn\u2019t announcing which companies have won contracts to come to the shoot off, there are reports of at least three other Army-approved competitors:<\/p>\n
- \n
- AM General,<\/strong> maker of the iconic Humvee, is offering the Brutus<\/a><\/strong>, boasting a unique recoil-reduction system<\/a> (built by Mandus Group<\/a>) that lets them mount the gun on a relatively lightweight truck. (They already put a lighter 105mm gun on a Humvee<\/a>). This is a brand-new<\/a> system not in service with any army.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.fie.undef.edu.ar\/ceptm\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/tiros.jpg\")
BAE illustration of their Archer self-propelled howitzer<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n - \n
- BAE Systems<\/strong>, which builds the M2 Bradley<\/a> and other heavy armored vehicles<\/a>, is offering the Archer<\/strong>, built by its Swedish branch and already in service with the Swedish army<\/a>.<\/li>\n
- Global Military Products<\/strong> is offering a Serbian gun, the Yugoimport NORA<\/a><\/strong>. We frankly don\u2019t know much about this one.<\/li>\n
- And now there\u2019s the Israeli ATMOS<\/strong><\/a>. Elbit<\/strong>, an up-and-coming company in Israel<\/a>, is specifically bringing the same 8\u00d78 configuration used by the Israeli Defense Force, nicknamed \u201cIron Sabre.\u201d (There\u2019s a strange fad of Israeli of naming weapons systems \u201cIron [Whatever]\u201d; a saber made of ordinary iron, as opposed to quality steel, would be brittle and dull).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Why so many foreign systems? Well, a wheeled<\/em> self-propelled howitzer is something a lot of other armies use, but the US military hasn\u2019t wanted until now. Many other nations \u2013 Russia, France<\/a>, and Israel itself<\/a> come to mind \u2013 rely heavily on wheeled armored fighting vehicles, which are generally much cheaper to buy and maintain than tracked ones.<\/p>\n
The US Army\u2019s heavy armored units<\/a>, however, have long disdained wheeled armor and equipped themselves exclusively with tracked ones, even in supporting roles, because tracked machines can carry much more weight \u2013 especially armor \u2013 and move better over rough terrain. The Army is currently both modernizing its M109 Paladin howitzers<\/a> and testing a next-generation Extended Range Cannon Artillery<\/a> (ERCA) system, both heavy tracked machines built by BAE.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the US Army\u2019s light infantry units<\/a> are optimized for rapid deployment by plane and helicopter, so they keep the use of any<\/em> vehicles to a minimum. Their main howitzer is the M777 (also <\/em>built by BAE<\/a>), which is a modernized, ultra-light version of the traditional towed artillery piece.<\/p>\n
So most of the American army is either too heavy or too light for truck-mounted artillery. But since 2003, there\u2019ve been a few medium weight brigades in between, built around the 8\u00d78 Stryker armored vehicle. There are many Stryker variants, from troop carriers to mobile command posts, with new upgunned<\/a>, anti-aircraft<\/a>, and electronic warfare variants<\/a> in the offing.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.fie.undef.edu.ar\/ceptm\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/tanque.jpg\")
Stryker anti-aircraft variant, IM-SHORAD (Interim Maneuver Short-Range Air Defense), armed with guns and missiles. A laser-armed variant will enter service in 2022.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n But the heaviest weapon a Stryker ever mounted was a 105mm tank gun, and that Mobile Gun System model proved badly overloaded<\/a>. So for artillery support, Stryker units have relied on the same towed howitzers as light infantry. That\u2019s worked okay against guerrillas in Afghanistan and Iraq. But in a conventional war against Russia or China, perhaps even Iran or North Korea, a towed gun can\u2019t move fast enough: By the time it\u2019s unloaded, fired some rounds, and gotten loaded back up again, the enemy will have backtracked the trajectory of those shells and launched a retaliatory barrage.<\/p>\n
By contrast, ATMOS can \u201cshoot and scoot\u201d in just two minutes: 30 seconds to stop and set up, 60 seconds to fire \u201csix or seven\u201d rounds, and 30 seconds to get moving again. It also boasts a top road speed of 50 mph. \u201cIt\u2019s designed for speed, both in transit and in emplacement,\u201d Elbit America exec Dave Richards told reporters this afternoon. \u201cIt\u2019s able to go from moving to first rounds out in less than thirty seconds with a four-man crew.\u201d<\/p>\n
(For comparison, BAE boasts that Archer can stop and start shooting in 20 seconds<\/a>).<\/p>\n
The Elbit vehicle\u2019s crew size could go down in future upgrades, Richards said. While the current ATMOS model uses a \u201csemi-automatic\u201d loading system that provides significant assistance to the human crew, he said, Elbit\u2019s developed a fully automatic loader that is \u201calmost ready for delivery to the IDF.\u201d (Archer already has an autoloader, allowing a three-man crew).<\/p>\n
The company\u2019s also talking with the US Army about potentially building an autoloader for the new ERCA tracked howitzer, he said. By contrast, the current Paladin and M777 are both loaded entirely by hand<\/a>, an exhausting process that\u2019s hard to keep up without slowing down or getting injured or both. If the Israeli Defense Force is happy with the autoloader, that\u2019ll encourage the US to buy it too.<\/p>\n
In fact, IDF endorsement is a big deal for the US Army, which is buying a bunch of other Israeli systems to fill glaring gaps in its arsenal. That includes Active Protection Systems for armored vehicles \u2013 basically miniature missile defenses to shoot down incoming anti-tank missiles \u2013 such as the Rafael Trophy and the IMI Iron Fist<\/a>, as well as the anti-rocket and missile defense system called Iron Dome<\/a>. (That said, Congress ordered a reluctant Army to buy Iron Dome as a stopgap because its in-house program was taking too long). The US also has a long and highly classified history of collaboration with Israel in intelligence and cyber warfare.<\/p>\n
Elbit argues their Israeli army experience proves their reliability. They haven\u2019t gone to a full autoloader yet like Archer, nor to an ultra-low-recoil system like Brutus, but that\u2019s because they wanted to stick with proven technologies that were easier to maintain and cheaper to build.<\/p>\n
Elbit\u2019s final selling point is customization. They\u2019re building the Iron Sabre version on an 8\u00d78 truck with Israeli fire-control systems for the IDF, but they\u2019ve made other models for other customers, installing the same gun on different trucks \u2013 including a 6\u00d76 \u2013 with different fire controls. They can make lighter models that carry fewer rounds onboard, Richards said, or heavy-duty versions that carry largo ammo loads.<\/p>\n
Any version for the US Army could be mounted on an American-made truck, connected to the American AFATDS<\/a> network, and potentially made in the USA, Richards said: \u201cWe do have a multi-year plan where we are looking to facilitate ATMOS production capability in the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n
As Breaking Defense<\/em> readers know, Israeli armsmakers are increasingly coming to America to set up subsidiaries<\/a>, alliances<\/a>, and production plants<\/a>, driven in part by new Foreign Military Financing rules<\/a> that require American military aid<\/a> to be largely spent in US dollars on US products.<\/p>\n
But before Elbit starts building ATMOS in America, it needs to win an American contract. The Army has not set out an acquisition strategy or a timeline to move from the shoot-off demonstration to a competitive procurement. But good performance in shoot-off will help a lot. That\u2019s specially true because it will be actual US artillery soldiers firing the guns, not contractors, given Army troops hands-on experience \u2014 part of the Army\u2019s push to get first-hand feedback from soldiers<\/a> before buying new technology.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s gonna be multiple phases over the several months of firing tests,\u201d Richards said. Details are still being thrashed out, he said, \u201cbut it\u2019s going to be hundreds of rounds, for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n
- Global Military Products<\/strong> is offering a Serbian gun, the Yugoimport NORA<\/a><\/strong>. We frankly don\u2019t know much about this one.<\/li>\n
- BAE Systems<\/strong>, which builds the M2 Bradley<\/a> and other heavy armored vehicles<\/a>, is offering the Archer<\/strong>, built by its Swedish branch and already in service with the Swedish army<\/a>.<\/li>\n