Israeli, Serbian, And Swedish Self-Propelled Howitzers Are participate To the U.S. Army new Howitzer Competition

Self-propelled howitzer designs from Israel, Serbia, and Sweden, as well as American models, will take part in a U.S. Army shoot-off at Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona early next year. The service is looking for new mobile artillery piece for its brigades equipped with Stryker wheeled armored vehicles, which are presently equipped with towed 155mm M777 howitzers.

The Army wants a wheeled howitzer that can keep up with its Stryker units, so the Israeli firm is shipping its 8x8 ATMOS gun to Yuma, where it’ll fire “hundreds of rounds.”

US Army soldiers will get to fire their Israeli counterparts’ newest howitzer early next year, when the Elbit ATMOS participates in a shoot off alongside rival guns. The weapon is already in service with the Israeli Defense Force and other nations; this will be its American debut.

All the competitors are 155mm howitzers mounted on trucks – typically six or eight-wheeled – and it’s an increasingly crowded field. While the Army isn’t announcing which companies have won contracts to come to the shoot off, there are reports of at least three other Army-approved competitors:

• AM General, maker of the iconic Humvee, is offering the Brutus, boasting a unique recoil-reduction system (built by Mandus Group) that lets them mount the gun on a relatively lightweight truck. (They already put a lighter 105mm gun on a Humvee). This is a brand-new system not in service with any army.

• BAE Systems, which builds the M2 Bradley and other heavy armored vehicles, is offering the Archer, built by its Swedish branch and already in service with the Swedish army.

• Global Military Products is offering a Serbian gun, the Yugoimport NORA. We frankly don’t know much about this one.

• And now there’s the Israeli ATMOS. Elbit, an up-and-coming company in Israel, is specifically bringing the same 8×8 configuration used by the Israeli Defense Force, nicknamed “Iron Sabre.”

Why so many foreign systems? Well, a wheeled self-propelled howitzer is something a lot of other armies use, but the US military hasn’t wanted until now. Many other nations – Russia, France, and Israel itself come to mind – rely heavily on wheeled armored fighting vehicles, which are generally much cheaper to buy and maintain than tracked ones.

The US Army’s heavy armored units, 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 – especially armor – and move better over rough terrain. The Army is currently both modernizing its M109 Paladin howitzers and testing a next-generation Extended Range Cannon Artillery (ERCA) system, both heavy tracked machines built by BAE.

Full story - Israel’s Elbit Enters US Howitzer Shoot Off

Polish Army receive first unit of PILICA Anti-Aircraft Missile System

Polish Army receive first unit of PILICA Anti-Aircraft Missile System. The system have officially entered in service at the 3rd Air Defense Missile Brigade of Polish Army. This is the one of the six ordered system.

One system includes: 6 fire units with artillery tractors, command station, radar station, 2 transport vehicles and 2 ammunition vehicles. Each fire unit of the PILICA system consists of two 23 mm caliber cannons and two GROM / PIORUN anti-aircraft missile launchers. Each set has its own optoelectronic head with a thermal imaging camera and laser rangefinder.

This configuration gives the PILICA system the ability to conduct autonomous operations, but also to operate as part of an integrated, multi-layered anti-aircraft defense as a very short range system (VSHORAD).

Forest Light-21 Japan-US bilateral training exercise

 

U.S. Marines with 3d Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, in a snow storm during exercise Forest Light 21 in the Niigata Prefecture, Japan, on Dec. 16, 2020. Forest Light is an annual bilateral training exercise that strengthens the interoperability and readiness of the U.S. Marine Corps and Japan Ground Self-Defense Force to deter aggression and defeat any threat. This iteration is focused on seizing and defending key maritime terrain as an integrated force in support of naval operations in the defense of Japan. 3/8 is forward-deployed in the Indo-Pacific under 3d Marine Division.

U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Jonathan Willcox and Lance Cpl. Scott Aubuchon.

US Army Manned Unmanned Teaming (MUM-T) concept

This past summer at Fort Carson, Col., modified Bradley Fighting Vehicles, known as Mission Enabling Technologies Demonstrators, and modified M113 tracked armored personnel carriers, or Robotic Combat Vehicles, were used for the Soldier Operational Experimentation (SOE) Phase 1 to further develop learning objectives for the Manned Unmanned Teaming (MUM-T) concept.

Photo by Jerome Aliotta

Russia tests direct-ascent anti-satellite missile

Russia has conducted a test of a direct-ascent anti-satellite (DA-ASAT) missile.

P222 Nudol interceptor Mobile TELs on MZKT-792911 chassis from the patent on the SPU design.

“Russia publicly claims it is working to prevent the transformation of outer space into a battlefield, yet at the same time Moscow continues to weaponize space by developing and fielding on-orbit and ground-based capabilities that seek to exploit U.S. reliance on space-based systems,” said U.S. Army Gen. James Dickinson, U.S. Space Command commander.

“Russia’s persistent testing of these systems demonstrates threats to U.S. and allied space systems are rapidly advancing. The establishment of U.S. Space Command as the nation’s unified combatant command for space and U.S. Space Force as the primary branch of the U.S. Armed Forces that presents space combat and combat support capabilities to U.S. Space Command could not have been timelier. We stand ready and committed to deter aggression and defend our Nation and our allies from hostile acts in space.”

The United States is concerned by Russia’s continued development and deployment of several types of ground-based and space-based ASAT weapons. These actions are contrary to Russia’s diplomatic and public stance against the weaponization of space. Specifically, Russia has demonstrated two completely different types of space weapons.

The first type of kinetic weapon is a DA-ASAT system capable of destroying satellites in low Earth orbit, which they have tested multiple times. If this weapon is tested on an actual satellite or used operationally, it will cause a large debris field that could endanger commercial satellites and irrevocably pollute the space domain.

3D-render of the SPU P222 on the MZKT-792911 chassis 

The second type is a co-orbital ASAT, a space-based weapon system, which demonstrated an on-orbit kinetic weapon in 2017 and again in 2020. Furthermore, in March 2018, President Putin announced the development of a ground-based laser system for use by the Russian Space Forces, which the Russian military acknowledged as a “combat laser system.” This pattern of behavior would be considered potentially threatening in any other domain.

“Russia has made space a warfighting domain by testing space-based and ground-based weapons intended to target and destroy satellites," Dickinson added. "This fact is inconsistent with Moscow’s public claims that Russia seeks to prevent conflict in space. Space is critical to all nations. It is a shared interest to create the conditions for a safe, stable, and operationally sustainable space environment. The demands on the space systems continue in this time of crisis where global logistics, transportation, and communications are key to defeating the COVID-19 pandemic.” 

Bundeswehr awards Rheinmetall framework contract to supply tank ammunition - Gross aggregate value as high as €556 million

The German Bundeswehr has awarded Rheinmetall an extensive framework contract to supply tank ammunition. Under this agreement, 203,000 rounds of 120mm x 570 cal. service and practice ammunition – the kind fired from the main armament of Leopard tanks, for example – can be procured through to the end of 2028. The framework agreement represents sales volume of up to €556 million, including value added tax. A first call-off of 15,000 rounds of DM88 ammunition came at the beginning of December, with delivery to be complete by the end of 2020. This order is worth €26.5 million, including VAT.

The framework contract encompasses delivery of a total of 19,000 rounds of DM11 ammunition, 95,000 DM88 cartridges and 89,000 rounds of DM98 ammunition. Developed by Rheinmetall, the DM11 is a multipurpose tank ammunition which can be programmed to detonate on impact (with or without a time delay) or in mid-air. The DM98 is the accompanying full-calibre practice round, which features reduced range and lower cost but otherwise displays comparable ballistic characteristics. The subcalibre DM88 is the practice version of the Bundeswehr’s armour-piercing DM63-KE ammunition.

This order highlights once again Rheinmetall’s position at the forefront of ammunition development and production in Europe. In light of the sustained production of these three ammunition types during the lifetime of this agreement, and their resulting availability at short notice, the framework contract also offers other 120mm smoothbore users indirect advantages with respect to logistics. For Rheinmetall, the framework agreement assures a basic level of capacity utilization in ammunition production for the next eight years.

Footage of Sprut-SDM1 trials

The 2S25M Sprut-SDM1 is a Russian light tank. It is developed in the 1990s by VTZ from Volgograd, KurganMachinery & Industrial Group N.V. The 2S25M Sprut-SDM1 based on the Russian armored infantry fighting vehicle BMD-4M.

The 2S25M Sprut-SDM1 is a new airborne light tank. It is a modernized version of the previous Sprut-SD. The new Sprut-SDM1 light tank is unified with the chassis of the new BMD-4M airborne combat vehicle and uses some fire control elements of the T-90MS main battle tank. The Sprud-SDM1 was first publicly revealed in 2016. It was announced that a first batch of 6 vehicles will be delivered to the Russian airborne forces in 2017. This light tank was delivered for official military trials in 2020. These trials should be completed in 2021-2022. Currently only a relatively small number of the original Sprut-SDs light tanks are in service with the Russian airborne units.

Video link - Щупальца «Спрута»: уникальные кадры испытаний новейшего легкого танка для ВДВ

The Sprut-SDM1 is officially referred in Russia as a self-propelled anti-tank gun, or tank destroyer. Though it is a light tank by its function. This combat vehicle was specially designed for the Russian airborne forces. This tank is airportable and can be paradropped. Furthermore it is fully amphibious. Its main role is to support airborne landing operations. It is intended to engage hostile armor, as well as to support infantry.

Strategic forces of Russian federation receive next Avangard HGV

Strategic forces of Russian federation receive next 15A35-71 (is the development of the famous UR-100 TTKh) ICBM with Avangard HGV (Hypersonic Glide vehicle).

The unit which first received the HGV complex is the 13th Orenburg Red Banner Rocket Division (Military Unit Number 68545) is a military formation of the 31st Rocket Army, Strategic Missile Forces, located in Yasny, ZATO Komarovsky, Orenburg Oblast.