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US Howitzer field trial report leaked, Army seizes computers in probe shishir gupta Posted online: Mon Feb 14 2011, 08:15 hrs New Delhi : In what the Army suspects is a case of “commercial espionage,” pages have been leaked from the classified report of the just-concluded field trial of the M777 ultra-light Howitzer that from the United States this year. The Army Headquarters has ordered the Director General Military Intelligence (DGMI) to conduct an inquiry. The acquisition, through the government-to- government foreign military sales route, is worth over $ 647 million for 10 regiments (160) guns. And is meant to...

G6 Renoster: Twisting in the Wind NEWTOWN, Conn. - The G6 Renoster has seen no new sales since Denel completed the export order for Oman in 1999. Production for the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) is complete; modernization and retrofit of the 43 systems in SANDF service are ongoing. Despite ongoing development (including the T6 turret and associated 155mm ammunition) and an aggressive international marketing campaign, Denel is facing a lack of sales prospects for the G6 Renoster. In addition to an increasingly wide array of comparable offerings on the international market, Denel's legal problems with India's Ministry of...

S.Korea to Buy $1.2 Bil Dollar Worth of K9 and F-15Ks The South Korean government has set a 1.4 trillion won or about 1.2-billion-US-dollar budget in purchasing K-9 self-propelled howitzers and F-15K fighter jets with the hopes of strengthening the country's military and naval forces. According to finance and defense ministries on Friday the amount of next year's national defense budget has increased 5.8 percent compared to this year's. Such an increase is seen as an effort to strengthen South Korea's military capabilities in the wake of North Korea's attack on Yeonpyeong Island this week. With the newly set budget...

South thwarts even bigger attack Military says strike by howitzers took out equipment November 25, 2010 North Korea had planned to fire more shells than the roughly 170 rounds that fell on Yeonpyeong Island and the waters around it, but a counterattack by South Korea damaged their equipment, South Korean military officials said yesterday. The South, however, did not describe the extent of the damage, adding to the list of unanswered questions over the first inland skirmish between the two Koreas since the Korean War. The attack by the North left two marines and two civilians dead. “After the North...

Emanating from the world’s most combat proven and effective tube artillery system, the Panzerhaubitze 2000 (PzH2000 self-propelled howitzer), Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW) developed an independent artillery module, fully meeting current military requirements. Accurate fire power is and remains an important military requirement. In current conflicts such as in Afghanistan, the PzH2000 could prove that this system can be perfectly deployed in asymmetric combat theatres. During Operation Medusa and the Battle of Chora, the Dutch PzH2000 effectively supported coalition forces and eliminated targets up to a distance of 46 kilometres. Indirect fire support is and remains an important element in current, as...

WASHINGTON: Asserting that its sale to India will "improve interoperability with US Soldiers and Marines," the US defense agency tasked with the transfer of military hardware and promoting military-to-military ties has notified the US Congress of the Obama administration's intention to sell 145 M777 Howitzers to India in a deal worth $ 647 million. The mandatory notification follows a request from India for the light-weight towed Howitzer with Laser Inertial Artillery Pointing Systems (LINAPS), the first major artillery purchase by New Delhi after the star-crossed Bofors deal going back to the 1980s. The $647 million deal will include warranty, spare...

BAE Systems has unveiled its brand new howitzer for deployment in the U.S. Army and eventually for military customers elsewhere. The next-generation howitzer is an upgraded Paladin Integrated Management vehicle in the M-109 Paladin family of vehicles, a combat-proven weapon system manufactured by BAE Systems in York, Pa. It was not immediately clear when the weapon would be marketed outside the United States, currently its major user. Previous PIM models are known to be operational with the Israeli army, and usage has been reported in Kuwait and Taiwan. Congressional representatives, community leaders and BAE employees attended a ceremony at the...

Not Everything is Recyclable   By Jonah Spangenthal-Lee     Seattle police shut down several streets in Wallingford and called out the bomb squad this morning   after staff at the North Seattle Transfer Station found that someone had tried to dispose of explosives at the facility.The call came in around 9:45 after an employee reported that they'd found a live 155mm round—like those used in Howitzer cannons—in a recycling bin.The bomb squad recovered the explosives and police reopened the streets around the facility shortly before 10 a.m.And now I think we can all agree that recycling and terrorism are practically...

India invites proposals for 2.5 billion-dollar artillery contract (AFP) 14 January 2008 NEW DELHI - India on Monday said it had invited proposals from global weapons manufacturers for the purchase of 140 medium calibre artillery guns worth 2.5 billion dollars. ‘The RFP (request for proposals) for the procurement of 140 ultra-light howitzer guns has been issued,’ Indian army chief Deepak Kapoor told reporters on the sidelines of a military function. ‘The army will issue global tenders shortly for the procurement of the 155-millimetre (six-inch) howitzers,’ he said and added a separate bid for 155 ‘advanced guns’—or heavy weaponry—would be also...

The M777A2 Light Weight 155 mm Howitzer made its debut at Camp Taji, Iraq, Jan. 2. The Soldiers from Battery B "Banditos," 2nd Battalion, 11th Field Artillery Regiment, 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, "Warrior," 25th Infantry Division, Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, first Army unit to field and fire the cannon system in Iraq. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. 1st Class Christina Bhatti. CAMP TAJI -- The Soldiers from Battery B, “Banditos,” 2nd Battalion, 11th Field Artillery Regiment, 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, “Warrior,” 25th Infantry Division, Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, made history, Jan. 2, when they were the first Army unit to...

India’s big-bang shopping gun booms SUJAN DUTTA New Delhi, April 4: India has reopened an artillery competition for global armament manufacturers for an order that could be worth more than Rs 15,000 crore. The defence ministry has re-floated two global tenders — called Requests for Proposals (RFP) — inviting bids from 12 makers of 155mm/52 calibre self-propelled guns, a source told The Telegraph here today. This signals the beginning of a fresh round of big-ticket defence procurements for Indian military orders running into billions of dollars. An RFP for 126 multi-role combat aircraft for the Indian Air Force (for an...

<p>RENO, Nevada (AP) -- The U.S. military is demanding the return of five howitzers that two Sierra Nevada ski resorts use to prevent avalanches, saying it needs the guns for the fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.</p> <p>Alpine Meadows and Mammoth Mountain received the artillery pieces on loan from the Army and began using them last year to fire rounds into mountainsides and knock snow loose.</p>

January 16, 2004: The U.S. Marine Corps has, as is their custom, taken an innovative approach to developing a new lightweight, self-propelled artillery system (the Expeditionary Fire Support System, or EFSS). They have combined an existing commercial vehicle, the Supacat HMT (High Mobility Transport) with an Israeli 120 mm mortar system. The HMT is a seven ton, four wheel cross country vehicle with a capacity for 3.2 tons. It has a 180 horsepower engine and a 4x4 drive optimized for cross country work. The cab is being modified to hold the five man gun crew. The Israeli mortar system weighs...