The US Army"s Griffin ATLAS with integrates new gyro-stabilized Thermal Sighting Unit (TSU) conduct live fire exercise during Project Convergence 21.
A Stryker/LAV-700 fitted with ALAS-MC turret conduct live fire exercise
The autoloader, designed by the Army Futures Command’s (AFC) Armament Center at Picatinny Arsenal, performs cannon loading tasks mechanically – setting the fuze, loading the projectile, propellant and stub charge, closing the breech – in sequence with barrel pointing to enable cannon firing at unprecedented rates.
Army Future’s Command Brig. Gen. John Rafferty Director of the Long Range Precision Fires (LRPF) Cross Functional Team (CFT) traveled to YPG to see the demonstration first hand and to meet the team who is behind all the work.
He told the team, “The Army is watching what you are doing and they are impressed.”
That team consists of the Yuma Test Center (YTC) workforce at YPG, Armament Center employees from Picatinny Arsenal, N.J. and Watervliet Arsenal, N.Y, and Project Manager Combat Ammunitions Systems employees, also from Picatinny Arsenal.
The demonstration involved the Armament Center’s 31-round fullcapacity autoloader using different types of charges, and the goal was to obtain data on how to increase the rate-of-fire in ERCA, and to verify the technical maturity of the major autoloader system subcomponents: projectile magazine, propellant magazine and transfer mechanism.
Rafferty explained, “We know that eventually we are going to have to improve the rate-of-fire of the system to deliver lethality against our adversaries in the volume that we need but also increase the survivability of our Soldiers and system. Allowing them to shoot quickly and move — because as soon as we put an ERCA battalion on the battlefield they will become the enemy’s number one priority target because the capability that it delivers is so significant.”
Chris Smith, Cannon Integrated Product Team Lead from the Armaments Center, whose team is in charge of cannon performance, added “With artillery when you are manually loading it, they can do it quickly in the beginning but then they get tired it slows down. This automated process will help keep that rate going by taking the user out of it and also keeps them safe.”
The demonstration involved the 31-round full-capacity autoloader using different types of charges, and the goal was to obtain data on how to increase the rate-of-fire. (Photos by Ana Henderson)
After viewing the inner workings of the weapon system, Rafferty along with YPG and YTC leadership and the ERCA teams viewed the live firing of three inert rounds from inside of blast protected workspaces at the gun position.
There was little time between each round and the work was, “Seamless” said Smith, “Today was very successful. Today’s demonstration was a culmination of a lot of hard work by the Armament Center and the industry partners to assemble and demonstrate an autoloader for ERCA against the requirements that were given a few years ago,” explained Senior Executive Service Anthony Sebasto, Armaments Center Executive Director for Enterprise and Systems Integration Center.
Rafferty told the crews on site, “With what we saw today, I don’t know how you could not be incredibility impressed.”
Now the data collected from this demonstration will be reviewed, analyzed and applied to the system.
“Today we demonstrated the firing rate. It gave the Army one more data point in terms of building confidence in ERCA ammunition handling capabilities and possibilities for the future,” said Sebasto.
Rafferty explained, “We are going to get range and lethality first and then when we are ready we’ll increase the rate-of-fire.”
Soon what was learned during this demonstration will be put into action once again with higher stakes.
“We are on the right path. The combination of the propellant magazine, the projectile magazine, and the transfer mechanism is really magical to see in action. It’s an early effort that is going to mature into a 23-round system that is going to be demonstrated late this year,” said Rafferty.
Gen. John Rafferty is pictured talking with Jered Ford during a recent visit. Ford has worked at Yuma Proving Ground for 14 years and is currently the Artillery Branch Chief. (Photo by Ana Henderson). On the background is the ХМ1299 ERCA with the new autoloader.
Via "The Outpost" newspaper
Development of the ERCA autoloader capability is notable because it would enable the cannon to fire at significantly faster rates, enhance lethality, and it may set the stage for future “optionally manned” artillery battery configurations where fewer – or possibly no Soldiers – would be required at the cannon during firing operations.
ERCA from the turret bearing up is a 100-percent Armaments Center-developed system. The ERCA armament and munitions have been thought about and innovation applied to them by the engineers at the Armaments Center for the XM1299, which gets’ you the range, and XM1299E1, which gets you the rate of fire capability.
The ERCA effort is nested within the Army’s top Modernization Priority, Long Range Precision Fires (LRPF). The Long Range Precision Fires Cross Functional Team (CFT) has set plans in motion for a two phased capability improvement by first providing the Soldier a self-propelled howitzer with increased range, followed by an increase to rate-of-fire. The U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command (DEVCOM) Armaments Center at Picatinny Arsenal, N.J., is leading the ERCA design effort.
Cannon loading requires selecting the right type of projectile and fuze to deliver the desired effect to the target and selecting the right propellant to match the required distance. First, the fuze is set. Next, the projectile and then the charge are loaded into the cannon’s tube, the breech is closed and the cannon is ready to fire.
The autoloader is a machine that performs these well-orchestrated tasks, which have historically been performed by cannon crew members. The autoloader, however, can attain a rate of fire that is 2-3 times faster than a cannon crew, with limits to duration such as the cannon tube overheating, according to Armaments Center Project Engineer and ERCA Ammunition Handling System Lead, Jimmy Lee.
In November 2018, an earlier variant of the ERCA, the XM1299 howitzer, fired projectiles out to 72 kilometers at Yuma, the farthest-reaching shots ever made by U.S. Army howitzers, and more than double the reach of currently fielded Army artillery systems.
In the demonstration in June 2019, an early science and technology ERCA prototype outfitted with a limited capacity autoloader, loaded five mass simulator high velocity projectiles and five prototype XM657 Extended Range Supercharge propellant charges, and successively fired a five-round cannon “burst” downrange at a rate of seven-rounds-per-minute. The purpose of the demonstration was to inform development of the ERCA XM1299E1 according Armaments Center Project Officer for ERCA, Josiah Fay.
The limited capacity autoloader was designed to handle only one type of projectile and charge, and it worked with a limited capacity magazine, according to Lee. It was built to validate key aspects of the engineering approach during the march toward the objective autoloader, and the tests allowed the team to verify that key components would work as intended in realistic conditions, while close observation of its performance would inform future autoloaders.
Next up, according to Lee, was building and demonstrating the objective capacity autoloader, which will be able to load and manage a suite of the Army’s legacy and emerging fuzes, propellant charges and projectiles, and it will work with larger capacity magazines. It is a more complex machine because projectiles, fuzes and propellant charges come in different shapes, sizes, and weights, which requires the autoloader to handle a range of configurations to execute a fire mission.
Also, the newer autoloader must deliver at a higher rate while working in synchronization with the larger magazines, which store and manage the loads so that it will deliver the right combination of fuze, projectile and propellant for the fire mission.
The Armaments Center engineers are working at Picatinny with an industry partner via an Other Transaction Agreement contract vehicle to attain the desired ammunition handling capability. The industry partner develops the magazines while working in coordination with the Armaments Center’s autoloader development team.
The Autoloader and Other ERCA Objectives
The ERCA system’s development emerged as a formal research effort – known as a “STO” for Science and Technology Objective – following a 2013 study that assessed next-generation artillery. According to Lee, the main takeaway from the onset of the effort was that significantly increased range coupled with increased rates of fire was technologically within reach, and it would be a “game changer” for cannon artillery.
Lee added that a significant capability of the autoloader was that it portends future artillery battery configurations where a howitzer would perform fire missions without necessarily requiring that Soldiers be in the vehicle during the firing operations.
Along with the autoloader, prominent elements of the ERCA program include the XM1113 Rocket Assist Projectile and XM659 Stub Charge, which have been formally transitioned and are now managed by Project Manager Combat Ammunition Systems (PM CAS). There are also several versions of the “Supercharge” in various stages of development to support an increased range capability.
The cannon features a sliding block breech built to withstand the immense pressure of the supercharge and a cannon tube made with new alloys formed to a 30-foot length, which enables a projectile’s velocity to continue increasing inside the cannon tube before exiting.
The ERCA armaments are fitted on an M109A7 “Paladin” chassis to form the self-propelled ERCA system.
