Army’s Newest Long-Range Fires System Isn’t New, But It Will Be Effective
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By Dan Gouré
December 02, 2020
The U.S. Army’s highest-priority modernization effort is long-range precision fires. The goal is to provide the Army and the Joint Force with fires systems that will be able to outrange and outshoot opposing forces and field the first units by the mid-2020s. The Army’s current program, managed by the Long-Range Precision Fires (LRPF) Cross-Functional Team (CFT), envisions an array of fires systems–cannons, rockets and missiles–that, taken in totality, will be able to engage targets at ranges from the close-in battlefield to the adversary’s strategic depth.
In the short time since it was created, the LRPF CFT has put together an impressive set of programs that have the promise of transforming long-range fires. First, there is the Extended Range Cannon Artillery (ERCA). The new cannon is based on the M109A7 Paladin Self-Propelled Howitzer, itself a substantial upgrade of this system. With a longer barrel and new breach, the ERCA will be able to fire advanced precision-guided shells up to 70 kilometers and even up to 100 kilometers, more than twice the range of existing artillery systems.
https://www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2020/12/02/armys_newest_long-range_fires_system_isnt_new_but_it_will_be_effective_651682.html
