Army - The New Germ War

U.S. Army/Maj. Randy Ready
Soldiers from the 7th Infantry Regiment fire an M1A2 Abrams tank at Grafenwoehr Training Area, Germany.
Early program descriptions noted that the Army had developed
a conceptual technical data package “for informational
purposes.” McFarland credited the U.S. Army Armament
Research, Development and Engineering Center for developing
the concept.
“We made that technical data available to the contractors,
but they are not required to use it,” he said. “They are completely
open to propose their own designs for the state of the
competition.”
Planned acquisition includes a two-phased engineering and
manufacturing development (demonstration phase I and completion
phase II, a low-rate initial production phase and two
full-rate production options). Full-rate production is estimated
at approximately 3,500 cartridges per year.
Shortly before the Association of the U.S. Army’s Annual
Meeting and Exposition last October, the Army awarded
XM1147 engineering and manufacturing development phase I
contracts to Orbital ATK and General Dynamics Ordnance
and Tactical Systems.
“Our ammunition innovations like advanced kinetic energy
penetrators and airbursting munitions are providing
combat overmatch for our warfighters—which is our company’s
mission,” said Dan Olson, vice president and general
manager for Orbital ATK’s Armament Systems division of
the Defense Systems Group. Pointing to the company’s recent
qualification of the M829A4 fifth-generation kineticenergy
round, he said, “Our ability to innovate comes from
a long history of creating new capabilities for existing systems
through our expertise in fuzing, warheads and platform
integration.”
In his own AUSA booth briefing, Emil Kovalchik, senior
director of marketing and business development for General
Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems, highlighted a
predecessor 120 mm Multi-Purpose High Explosive Round
fielded on an urgent basis by the U.S. Marine Corps.
“They actually did that directly with Rheinmetall [round designation
DM11], who is our partner in Defense Munitions International,”
Kovalchik said. “We got pulled in after they started
building those for the Marines. But we’ve gotten extraordinary
results.”
Kovalchik said the multipurpose high explosives were fired
“in combat in Afghanistan—we had Marine Corps tanks
there—and we got great feedback from the Marines. So the
task before us under the AMP process is to pretty much
‘Americanize it,’ if you will.”
“By doing that, basically we’re going to simplify the design,”
he said. “We’re looking at materials that we might be able to
substitute” to make it more competitive and a better value.
The new AMP “takes out the guesswork,” and makes the
Abrams crew “much more effective on target in almost all
cases,” Kovalchik said.
“And those targets are everything from lightly skinned vehicles,
anti-aircraft type targets, manmade bunkers, troops in the
open and concrete walls,” he said. “So one round does it all
and ultimately makes the soldier or Marine on the battlefield
that much safer—not having to go through the situation
where they have a particular target that they can’t service. So
it’s a great, great idea that is more than past its time.”
Pointing to the current development program, McFarland
said the Army would down-select to one of the two independent
designs during the first quarter of 2017 based on demonstrated
performance and cost.
“We expect that in the January to February time frame,” he
said. “From there, we’ll complete development with one contractor,
finalize the design, qualify it, and get it through operational
testing and out into the field” in fiscal year 2021.
“I think the takeaway is that in conjunction with the Abrams
platform, we are providing the soldiers with additional capabilities
as well as making their lives better by reducing their battlecarry
dilemma,” McFarland said, “and in saving them precious
seconds in the direct firefight in contact with the enemy.” ✭
60 ARMY ■ September 2016