The United States Department of Defence on Friday announced that it was to conduct what it called foreign comparative testing on two types of South African artillery ammunition.
The Pentagon annually selects a number of promising military technologies from around the world. If they match US requirements and cannot be supplied by American arms makers, the items are often adopted by the US military.
This year, 28 new programmes, including two for South Africa have been registered, the British-based Defence Systems Daily webzine reported.
Experience in first Afghanistan and then Iraq have convinced the Pentagon that smart weapons are not as clever as first imagined and that the age of artillery is not yet over.
Exposure to South African products at recent arms shows also convinced authorities there that South Africa had much to offer.
The first programme registered concerned an experimental 105mm preformed fragments round currently under development by the state-owned arms manufacturer Denel.
”This project is evaluating the potential increased lethality and range of the conventional 105mm field artillery ammunition, developed by Denel-Naschem, over the current US ammunition. If successful, the project will greatly enhance the lethality of artillery equipping US Army light forces,” DSD quoted the Pentagon as saying.
The ammunition is being developed for the light experimental ordnance or ”Leo” gun, also under development by Denel for the SA Army.
Leo is in effect a scaled-down G5 that can fire its special ammunition 30km. The US M119 105mm field gun, by comparison, can reach 14km.
The preformed fragments also make the otherwise puny 105mm projectile as lethal as its larger 155mm cousin.
The US is also taking an interest in the latest G5 ammunition series, the Assegai range.
”This project is evaluating the potential increased range of the family of 155mm Field Artillery projectiles, developed by Denel-Naschem, over current US ammunition. If successful, the project will greatly increase the fire support provided to US Army ground forces,” the Pentagon said.
With the Assegai, the G5 can now fire to ranges of over 70km.
By comparison, the US M198 can reach 22,4km with conventional ammunition or 30km with a rocket-assisted projectile (RAP).
RAP projectiles are traditionally less effective than normal shells because of the space taken up by the rocket.
Denel’s very long-range artillery projectile (VLAP) overcomes this by using the same preformed fragment approach of the smaller 105mm shell. Despite its rocket motor it is still rated as more effective than normal 155mm projectiles.
Ironically, the M119 was itself built under licence from Britain and the M198 is being replaced by a British-designed system. – Sapa