US Army testet "Extended Range Cannon Artillery" (ERCA)

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theoderich
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US Army testet "Extended Range Cannon Artillery" (ERCA)

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The Extended Range Cannon Artillery (ERCA) Autoloader is being tested for first time at YPG.

The ERCA program has been testing various components of its system for about four years. The newest component undergoing testing is a five-round limited capacity autoloader that holds five projectiles and five propellant charges.

Testing of the limited capacity autoloader is being conducted from a prototype M109A7 which has been modified and integrated with the ERCA Armament System.
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Virtual Reality Prototyping for Fire Control Platforms
NDIA Armament Systems Forum 2019

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AUSA 2018: US Army Extended Range Cannon Artillery programme eyes 130 km range
The US Army aims, via its Extended Range Cannon Artillery (ERCA) programme, for howitzers to reach out to 130 km or farther in range, and several technology solutions are now emerging.

The army's Long-Range Precision Fires (LRPF) Cross-Functional Team recently conducted a 'deep dive' into the service's LRPF portfolio to evaluate all the investments for the next five-year funding plan, Colonel John Rafferty, director of the LRPF Cross-Functional Team, told reporters on 10 October at the Association of the United States Army's (AUSA's) annual conference.
"I think there are a couple of technologies out there that allow us to get to 120-130 [km]," Col Rafferty said.

"Ramjet is one," he said, referring to air-breathing jet engines to assist the artillery shells in reaching longer ranges. South Korea's Poongsan and Norway's Nammo, for example, have each recently revealed 155 mm solid-fuel ramjet propelled artillery shells.

The army may also explore trading off payload and lethality for longer ranges, an army official said, but noted that the service is still exploring what targets it would need to strike at that range and what trade-offs it might be willing to make.

The ERCA is a wider and longer-term effort to improve howitzers, and aside from range it will also consider technologies gleaned through the army's 155 mm Cannon-Delivered Area Effects Munition (C-DAEM) project.

C-DAEM is taking an incremental approach to new development, "focused on rapidly fielding disruptive capabilities while fully replacing the utility of the DPCIM", Peter Burke, deputy project manager for combat ammunition systems within the US Army's Program Executive Office for Ammunition, told Jane's in May.
https://www.janes.com/article/83718/aus ... 0-km-range
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theoderich
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Re: US Army testet "Extended Range Cannon Artillery" (ERCA)

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Army picks 6 to work on autoloader for extended-range cannon
The Army has picked six companies to work on concepts and designs for an autoloader for the service’s future Extended-Range Cannon Artillery (ERCA) program currently under development, according to a Jan. 24 Army Futures Command statement.

While the first ERCA cannons will be fielded in fiscal 2023, the goal is to begin fielding the system with an autoloader just one year later.

The companies — Actuate (formerly Aegis Systems, Inc.); Apptronik, Inc.; Carnegie Robotics LLC; Pratt & Miller Engineering; Neya Systems, LLC and Hivemapper, Inc. — will work under the Army Capability Accelerator and the Army Applications Laboratory (AAL) as part of the Field Artillery Autonomous Resupply (FAAR) “cohort” and will come up with novel, outside-of-the-box concepts for the autoloader.
Among the companies selected, Actuate specializes in artificial intelligence focusing on computer vision software that turns any security camera into an “intruder- and threat-detecting smart camera," the release states.

Apptronik is a robotics company spun out of the Human Centered Robotics Lab at the University of Texas at Austin.

Pittsburgh-based Carnegie Robotics specializes in robotic sensors and platforms for defense, agriculture, mining, infrastructure and energy applications and was founded out of Carnegie Mellon University’s National Robotics Engineering Center.

Pratt & Miller’s focus has been on addressing technology challenges in the motorsports, defense and mobility industries.

Neya Systems, also from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is another robotics company focused on advanced unmanned systems, off-road autonomy and self-driving vehicle technologies.

Through mapping, visualization and analytic tools, Hivemapper uncovers changes normally missed by the human eye and uses that technology to assess damage after disasters, manage construction and build situational intelligence during military operations.
https://www.defensenews.com/land/2020/0 ... ge-cannon/


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theoderich
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Re: US Army testet "Extended Range Cannon Artillery" (ERCA)

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theoderich
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Re: US Army testet "Extended Range Cannon Artillery" (ERCA)

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US Army opting for 23-round autoloader for ERCA
Brigadier General John Rafferty, the head of the Long-Range Precision Fires Cross-Functional Team, and Program Manager for Armored Fighting Vehicles Colonel Timothy Fuller briefed reporters on 15 April about the service’s multi-pronged approach for improving ERCA’s rate of fire.

The weapon is an incremental upgrade to BAE Systems’ Paladin M109A7 self-propelled howitzer that includes a 30 ft (9.1 m) gun tube designed to launch 58 calibre (155 mm) rounds. Service leaders are working with the company to have 18 ERCA Increment 1 (Inc 1) weapons ready for operational testing in 2023.

Their plans had then called for an autoloader capability to be added in 2024 as part of ERCA Inc 2. However, they have determined that the government designed autoloader that carries 31 rounds is too large for the vehicle and it is now being scaled down to carry 23 rounds, Brig Gen Rafferty explained.

“Scaling down to that 23 round, reduced capacity is the sweet spot for weight, centre of gravity, and onboard kills,” he added.

If autoloader development proceeds as planned, the one-star general said the service will demo it about the September timeframe, but it will not be ready in time for the previously anticipated 2024 date.

”That’s okay,” Brig Gen Rafferty added. “The guidance we got from the senior leaders was range, mobility, and then rate of fire when we’re ready with the right alternative.”
https://www.janes.com/defence-news/news ... r-for-erca


Picatinny’s Extended Range Cannon Artillery autoloader begins testing (18. März 2021)

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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.

After the June tests, the ERCA project teams had demonstrated independently both the interim range and rate-of-fire goals that were established during the STO phase.

The ERCA Integration Team is in the final stages of informing the LRPF CFT’s Increased Rate of Fire capability with the XM1299E1 ERCA system, which is now integrated onto a M109A7 chassis with an optimized cab and full-capacity autoloader. Two more demonstrations are planned for fiscal year 2021 that will further validate autoloader technologies and with greater rates of fire.

The December tests were part of the preparations for those demonstrations. In the tests, the engineers successfully fired multiple rounds using the objective capacity autoloader at Picatinny’s Ballistic Evaluation Center. It was the second time Picatinny facilities have live-fired integrated autoloader technologies from a Paladin platform, the first being a limited capacity auto loader demonstration in June of 2019.
https://www.army.mil/article/244447/pic ... ns_testing
theoderich
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Re: US Army testet "Extended Range Cannon Artillery" (ERCA)

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theoderich
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Registriert: So 29. Apr 2018, 18:13

Re: US Army testet "Extended Range Cannon Artillery" (ERCA)

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theoderich
Beiträge: 20033
Registriert: So 29. Apr 2018, 18:13

Re: US Army testet "Extended Range Cannon Artillery" (ERCA)

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Boeing, Nammo Complete Long-Range Ramjet Artillery Test

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Boeing [NYSE: BA] and Nammo have successfully test-fired a ramjet-powered artillery projectile, further demonstrating the viability of one of the U.S. Army’s modernization priorities – long-range precision fires. During the June 28 test at the Andøya Test Center in Norway, a Boeing Ramjet 155 projectile was fired out of a cannon and its ramjet engine ignited successfully. It demonstrated flight stability with a well-controlled engine combustion process.
The long-range test at Andøya follows years of research, development and testing by Boeing and Nammo of ramjet technology, including more than 450 static or short-range tests.

Boeing Phantom Works and Nammo have been working together under a strategic partnership to jointly develop and produce the next generation of boosted artillery projectiles. In July 2019, the Boeing-Nammo team was awarded a contract under the U.S. Army’s XM1155 program to develop and mature the Ramjet 155 projectile. In May 2021, the team was awarded a Phase II technology development contract.

Ramjet 155 uses an engine in which the air drawn in for combustion is compressed solely by the forward motion of the projectile at supersonic speeds. Considered a hybrid between guided artillery and missiles, the program has an objective of a common round design that can be used in L39 and L58 cannons.
https://www.nammo.com/boeing-nammo-comp ... lery-test/
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