Army Comes Up Short In Artillery Firepower | AVIATION WEEK: "The U.S. Army needs a new self-propelled artillery system. Though it plans to keep BAE’s Paladin PIM howitzer in service until 2050-60, the Army was also planning to add the Non-Line-of-Sight-Cannon (NLOS-C), a self-propelled tracked howitzer that was part of the discontinued Future Combat Systems (FCS) program (see related story on p. 30).
There is now nothing between the 30-ton Paladin, armed with a 155/39-mm. M284 gun, and the towed M777 lightweight howitzer, which weighs 4.2 tons, and uses M284-derived M776E2 ordnance. The 21-ton, 155/38-mm. NLOS‑C would have combined firepower, mobility and protection.
This is the second major artillery program the Army has lost in recent years. The XM2001 Crusader self-propelled howitzer, a 43-ton system with a 155/56-mm. XM297E2 gun, was cut in Fiscal 2002.
Army artillery is now undergunned and overexposed."
