The US Army worries about the endurance of its new extended range artillery guns

Among the lessons learned from the conflict in Ukraine, the central role of artillery in high-intensity conflicts is undoubtedly the most important, while heavy artillery capabilities had been neglected for the past 30 years, to the point of being reduced to their bare minimum in many Western armies, including the French Army and even the US Army. If the number of "tubes" per soldier has thus been divided by 3 since 1990 in the West, the performance of Western artillery systems has, for their part, experienced dazzling progress, both in terms of precision and range or mobility. . The arrival of modern long-barreled systems such as the French CAESAR or the German Pzh2000, both equipped with 155mm long 52 caliber guns, 52 times the caliber of the weapon (i.e., 8,47m) instead of 39 calibers which equipped the M109 or the AuF1, made it possible to confer on the systems a greater extension, with a range passing from 24 to 28 km for the old systems, to a range of 40 km, and more with shells with added propulsion, for the new ones.

The benefits of these new systems have been widely demonstrated during the fighting in Ukraine. Thus, the AHS Krab (Poland), Caesar (France) and Pzh2000 (Germany) largely outclassed the Russian 2S3 Akatcya and 2S9 Msta-S, in range and accuracy, as evidenced by the documented loss ratios. They were therefore widely used by the Ukrainian military, despite their small numbers, to contain Russian offensives, support Ukrainian counter-offensives, but also to carry out counter-battery and opportunity strikes. However, to achieve such performance, 52-caliber guns must absorb much greater mechanical and thermal stresses than their 39-caliber counterparts, resulting in faster wear of the barrels, but also of all the mechanical parts of the system. artillery and carrier vehicle. This is how the combination of intense use, a low number of units and higher constraints, today leads to the erosion of Ukrainian artillery capabilities, while 16 of the 18 CAESAR and the all Pzh2000 delivered to Ukraine must be regenerated after 4 months of war. On the other hand, none of these systems was destroyed by enemy fire, even if a Lancet prowling ammunition damaged a CAESAR without destroying it a few weeks ago.

This problem has not escaped the American gunners who have been testing the new Extended Range Cannon Artillery system for several months, one of the 32 modernization pillars of the US Army under development. Unlike the European (Caesar, Pzh2000, Archer) or South Korean (K9 Thunder) systems, the ERCA program aims to develop an artillery gun not of 52 caliber, but of 58 caliber, making it possible to achieve a range of 70 km, that is to say that reached today by the guns of 52 caliber by employing expensive shells with added propulsion. But if the thermal and mechanical stresses reduce the operational life of a 155mm L/52 gun (for Length/52 caliber) to a few months in a high intensity environment, it was feared that the life of the XM907 gun L/58 used on the M1299 of the ERCA program, would be even more reduced due to faster wear. The fact is, the tests carried out during firings by the prototypes of M1299 indeed show the rapid appearance of weaknesses and damage to the tube, suggesting very rapid wear of the system.

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