Thanks to its indirect fire capability, artillery remains indispensable in modern combat operations, even in asymmetric conflicts.

The precision and firepower of cannon artillery offer a wide array of operational possibilities, ranging from a show of force in the form of a few well-targeted warning shots to the use of special smoke/obscurant ammunition for screening the movements of friendly forces, and from blocking off key areas of terrain to breaking up enemy infantry formations and destroying high-value enemy assets.

Denel Landsystems, General Dynamics Land Systems and Rheinmetall Denel Munitions are cooperating in a project, that could result in equipping the highly mobile Stryker Brigade Combat Teams with a 105mm self-propelled howitzer based on the 8x8 Stryker vehicle to serve as a future artillery effector. In this project Denel Landsystems is responsible for the T7 turret and the gun, General Dynamics Land Systems for the vehicle and Rheinmetall Denel Munition for the ammunition as well as a Unimodular Charge System.

At AUSA, Rheinmetall is presenting its innovative ammunition for this new weapons system. The Group's new 105mm M1130 base-bleed (BB) and M1131 Boat Tail (BT) projectiles are insensitive high explosive pre-formed fragment (IHE PFF) shells, developed by Rheinmetall Denel Munition. They are based on the Igala M0125 IHE PFF rounds made by Rheinmetall Denel Munition. Their effect on semi-hard targets is comparable to that of a 155mm high explosive shell.

Trials in South Africa demonstrated that the Igala, when fired by the 105mm long-range Light Experimental Ordnance (LEO) cannon from Denel Land Systems and propelled by a five-module RDM XM24A42 charge, can attain a maximum range of over 33 kilometres. By way of comparison, when fired from a 105mm M119A2 Light Gun with a conventional seven-zone M67 propelling charge, the longest range attained by the ammunition was 13.8 km.

Rheinmetall
11.10.2011