SHAUN MCDOUGALL
The U.S. Army’s search for its next howitzer remains in motion, six months after service leaders scrapped efforts to upgun its current M109 Paladin self-propelled howitzer.
Even as the Army was terminating the ERCA program in March, the service was reinvigorating its search for a longer-ranged Paladin replacement to serve until 2040 and beyond. Its fiscal 2025 budget request included $8 million for initial next-generation howitzer studies.
Meanwhile, service leaders are surveying the existing field. An industry day was held in April, attended by representatives from American Rheinmetall, AM General, BAE Systems, Elbit, Hanwha, and Krauss-Maffei Wegmann. This group builds a mix of wheeled and tracked options: Rheinmetall and KMW jointly produce the tracked PzH-2000; KMW also has the wheeled RCH 155; AM General makes the Brutus system that can be equipped on a truck; incumbent BAE Systems has tested the Paladin with a Rheinmetall L52 cannon, and the company also manufactures the wheeled Archer howitzer; Elbit makes the wheeled M454; and Hanwha produces the tracked K9 Thunder.
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