Army Hits Target from 43 Miles Away with Artillery System in Works
upstart writes in with an IRC submission for Runaway1956:
Army long-range cannon gets direct hit on target 43 miles away:
WASHINGTON - The Army's Extended Range Cannon Artillery (ERCA) system under development hit a target 43 miles away - or 70 kilometers - on the nose at Yuma Proving Ground, Arizona, Dec. 19, using an Excalibur extended-range guided artillery shell, according to the general who is overseeing the service's Long-Range Precision Fires modernization.
[...] The Army is racing to extend artillery ranges on the battlefield to take away advantages of high-end adversaries like Russia. The ERCA cannon, when fielded, should be able to fire and take out targets from a position out of the range of enemy systems.
[...] In this test, the Army took three shots. The first shot came up short due to very high head winds at a high altitude and the second shot had a hardware failure, but the third shot proved that the service is getting closer to dialing in on the right balance between propellant, projectile design and other factors that play into achieving greater distances, Rafferty said.
[...] Each munition fired during Saturday's event had slight design differences to address how best to design and prepare the round to absorb the high-pressure and force of being fired at 1,000 meters per second from a gun tube of ERCA's caliber, Rafferty said.
No sharks with frickin lasers.
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