US Army scraps ERCA autoloader plans, heads back to the drawing board

Ashley Roque

Weight and mobility challenges have forced the US Army to abandon a government-designed autoloader for its Extended Range Cannon Artillery (ERCA) programme and the service is now looking for help from six tech companies.

Brigadier General John Rafferty, the head of the Long-Range Precision Fires Cross-Functional Team, spoke at a virtual Fires Conference on 29 September and provided an update of programmes under his purview. One notable change is an army's decision not to move forward with an autoloader that it had been developing for the new weapon based off BAE Systems' Paladin M109A7 self-propelled howitzer.

“The integration challenge for [it] was too much of a trade with mobility and durability, and some of the results from putting 3,000 miles on a combat vehicle [out at Yuma Proving Ground] weighted up with the centre of gravity issue that we had,” the one-star general told the audience. “It was an easy decision to say that we can't do that.”

Instead the army is looking to a group of six companies previously picked to help find artillery munition resupplying solutions – Actuate, Apptronik, Carnegie Robotics, Hivemapper, Neya Systems, and Pratt Miller. Although Brig Gen Rafferty did not provide in-depth information on the path ahead, he noted that a future capability may not be an autoloader at all.

”I've learned that it was really stupid to go into this saying, ‘Hey, we want an autoloader'. I don't want an autoloader; What we want is an improved rate of fire,” he added.

”What I told them is I don't care if there's cannoneer there setting fuses if we're able to get the six to 10 rounds a minute,” Brig Gen Rafferty furthered.

https://www.janes.com/defence-news/news-detail/us-army-scraps-erca-autoloader-plans-heads-back-to-the-drawing-board