LIGHTWEIGHT 155M HOWITZER
Abstract
The Lightweight 155 millimeter (mm) Howitzer (LW155), also known as the M777A2, is a Joint Service program between the United States Marine Corps (USMC) and United States Army which provides direct, reinforcing, general support fires to maneuver forces and direct support artillery. The LW155 was first introduced into the USMC in April 2005 and the Marines have fielded the howitzer to all active units. The Army fielded the howitzer to its Stryker Brigade Combat teams (SBCT), Fires Brigades, National Guard and Infantry Brigade Combat Teams (IBCT). The LW155 saw extensive action in Afghanistan, receiving high marks for its performance. It replaces all howitzers in all USMC missions and replaces the M198 howitzer as the general support artillery for light forces in the Army. The LW155 fires unassisted projectiles to a range of 30 kilometers (km) and assisted projectiles to 40km. The addition of the digital fire control system enables the weapon to program and fire the improved Excalibur precision-guided munitions to ranges in excess of 40km with better than 10-meter Circular Error Probable (CEP) accuracy. The LW155 is the first ground combat system whose major structures are made of high strength titanium alloy and the system makes extensive use of hydraulics to operate the breech, load tray, recoil and wheel arms. It is a successful joint service program between the USMC and United States Army working together to develop, produce, field, and sustain the howitzer. The howitzer will be going through obsolescent replacement of electronic components in its digital fire control system, since it has been in the field for more than ten years. Production and fielding of the LW155 concluded and entered into the Sustainment Life Cycle Phase. Current development efforts are focused on extending the range of the LW155 to reduce the threat of being out ranged by potential adversaries and meeting the range key performance parameter objective distance (greater than 40km) as stated in the Joint United States Army, USMC Operational Requirements Document (JORD) for Advanced Towed Cannon System, but deferred during Engineering Manufacturing and Development due to technology maturity, cost and schedule. The USMC and United States Army are leveraging technology being developed as part of the Extended Range Cannon Artillery (ERCA) program by the United States Army. The ERCA program is a suite of technologies, cannon, ammunition and fire control, to increase the range of cannon artillery to exceed peer competitors range (greater than 70km). An operational demonstration of the M777 Extended Range (M777ER) howitzer will be conducted at the end of FY 2020 to assess the performance of best available projectiles and objective hardware of M777ER howitzer.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Project
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 2022
- Source ID
- 509_0604854A_5_2040_PB_2022
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