The absence of self-propelled artillery platforms in the U.S. Army’s
newly-formed brigades has prompted a French manufacturer to offer
a 155 mm truck-mounted artillery gun as a possible alternative.
The system also is being marketed to the U.S. Marine Corps and the
Royal Malaysian Army.
Called Caesar, the weapon was designed to provide rapid fire support
for a battalion-size unit, without the hassles associated with towed
howitzers, said Woodson A. Sadler Jr., a retired U.S. Marine colonel
and a consultant to Giat Industries, the manufacturer of Caesar.
Five systems were sold to the French Army last year, and they are
expected to be delivered next month.
"It’s a French design, but we are looking at American
companies to help with the production," Woodson said in an
interview. If U.S. military agencies decided to buy Caesar, "it
would be produced partly in the United States."
The primary role of Caesar is to provide hit-and-run artillery
fire on a platform that can move fast (about 65 mph) and keep up
with the light armored vehicles in the unit, said William Sidgwick,
manager of business development at Giat Industries. "You can
get the artillery in position fast, fire six rounds and leave, all
in less than three minutes," he said.
Caesar can operate autonomously, with its own inertial navigation
unit, ballistic computer and muzzle velocity radar, Sidgwick said.
The system comes with a 155 mm, 52-caliber barrel and can maintain
a firing rate of six to eight rounds per minute in sustained fire,
or three rounds in 15 seconds in rapid fire. Sidgwick noted that
the 52-caliber size is the NATO standard, but that Caesar also can
fire 39-caliber rounds.
The weapon has an automatic hydraulic laying system and the loading
mechanism is semi-automatic.
According to Giat, a unit of eight Caesar self-propelled artillery
vehicles can dispense, in less than one minute, more than one ton
of projectiles, 1,500 bomblets or 48 smart anti-tank munitions on
targets at ranges up to 24 miles.
The platform is a 7-ton Daimler-Benz Unimog 6 x 6 chassis. It can
travel un-refueled up to 360 miles. The whole system weighs 18 tons.
Excluding its crew and ammunition supply, Caesar can be carried
in a single load of a C-130 Hercules transporter. If Caesar were
purchased for the U.S. military, existing Army or Marine trucks
could be adapted as platforms, Sidgwick said.
In the current configuration, he added, each system costs about
$2 million and can be produced in 12 months.
The French Army, he said, decided to buy five systems for testing.
It is not clear whether Caesar ultimately would replace or supplement
towed artillery, Sidgwick said. "That is still a question of
debate in the French Army. They will use the initial batch of Caesars
to ascertain whether in the future they will replace the towed system
or not."
Giat has discussed with the U.S. Army the possibility of using
Caesar in the so-called brigade combat teams, six or seven of which
will be stood up during the next decade. There is no self-propelled
artillery assigned to the BCTs yet. The only system available today
for these units is a towed howitzer. Sadler said he believes that
Caesar could be an attractive option for the BCTs as an indirect
fire platform, to supplement the 105 mm mobile gun system that already
was selected.
"For raid operations, Caesar can keep up with [light armored
vehicles] LAVs," said Sadler.
Brigade Combat Teams
The BCTs plan to acquire a truck-mounted rocket artillery system,
the HIMARS. But that system will not be ready to deploy for several
more years, so Caesar could fill the gap for the near term, he said.
Sadler cautioned, however, that Caesar and HIMARS are different
weapons designed for different missions, so they should not be viewed
as competitors. In simple terms, one is a gun and the other is a
missile.
HIMARS, which stands for high mobility artillery rocket system,
is a truck-based, lighter variant of the Army’s multiple launch
rocket system, made by Lockheed Martin Corp. The platform is a 5-ton
Army truck made by Stewart & Stevenson Corp., in Sealy, Texas.
The first operational systems are scheduled for 2005. The U.S. Marine
Corps also has placed an order for 45 HIMARS.
Unlike Caesar, HIMARS is a large-area weapon designed to be a division
commander’s asset, Sadler explained. Caesar is intended for
precision artillery at the battalion level, to support a regiment.
"Caesar is not replacing an existing system," he said.
The Marine Corps is an ideal customer for Caesar, Sadler said,
because the vehicles could roll off the landing craft air-cushioned
and, "as soon as they hit the beach, they are ready to fire."
With towed artillery, he said, "you have to stop, unload, take
it off the truck and fire."
Giat officials are optimistic about the prospect of selling Caesar
to the U.S. military. However, they face an uphill battle, according
to an industry source who asked to not be quoted by name.
The biggest obstacle, he said, is that Caesar was not conceived
or designed in the United States.
In an attempt to satisfy legislation that requires that U.S. weapons
be made domestically, Giat is actively seeking potential partnership
deals with U.S. firms. The companies that are being approached about
the program include truck manufacturers Oshkosh Truck Corp. and
Stewart & Stevenson, for the production of the Caesar platform,
as well as systems integrators, such as General Dynamics Land Systems
and United Defense LP.
Another hurdle confronting Giat is the perception that Caesar would
be competing against an ongoing artillery program—the Army
and Marine Corps lightweight 155 mm towed howitzer. The system,
made by BAE Systems, is in development and scheduled to begin production
in 2003 or 2004. This weapon will replace the current M198 towed
howitzer, which is too heavy and fails to satisfy the mobility requirements
of the Army’s medium brigades and the Marine Corps expeditionary
units.
Both the Army and the Marine Corps have committed significant funding
for the lightweight towed howitzer program, so Giat officials are
concerned about "being perceived as a threat," said the
industry source. Caesar rather offers "an interim enhancement
to expeditionary fire support" until the lightweight towed
howitzer is deployed, he said.
Within the Marine Corps, Caesar also would be competing for artillery
dollars against the mobile fire-support system, a rifled 120 mm
mortar, which still is in development.
It is unclear yet who will become Giat’s U.S. partners if
the program moves forward. Paul Justice, spokesman for Stewart &
Stevenson, said the company "has had conversations" with
Giat officials about the Caesar project, but could not provide specifics.
John Stoddart, vice president of Oshkosh Truck Corp., said that
the Caesar system would be a natural fit for the 8-ton Medium Tactical
Vehicle-Replacement, which Oshkosh is building for the Marine Corps.
"MTVR was designed as an artillery carrier and tower,"
Stoddart said. Platforms such as the MTVR, he added, offer "tremendous
flexibility to do things off the back of the truck.
"We have a long-standing relationship with Giat. We’ve
had some discussions with them over the past year," he added.
The integration of a truck with a 155 mm howitzer is not "terribly
difficult," Stoddart said. "We need to see how interested
the Army is." The real issue, he added, is whether the United
States really has a requirement for this system.