- Reaction score
- 64
- Points
- 530
http://www.dtic.mil/ndia/2007gun_missile/GMTuePM2/SmithPresentation.pdf
http://www.jonesreport.com/articles/270407_bae_weapon.html
CAMP RIPLEY, MINN. - With each blast, the ground shook, the trailers rattled and the TVs danced.
Even the pros at this Army base flinched as BAE Systems' new mortar blasted five rounds into history with bangs so loud they made hearts skip.
Rodney Brown and nine of his fellow BAE engineers waited three years for this moment.
"It kind of threw me for a bit. It made me jump," said Brown, who has spent much of his time holed up designing firing and testing software inside BAE's armament systems headquarters in Fridley.
The $200 million prototype that the Army tried out this week here -- the NLOS Mortar System XM325 -- is meant to replace 30-year-old combat vehicles and give soldiers shelter from enemy fire while giving them automated loading and firing in a mortar system for the first time.
If the NLOS (non-line-of-sight) system can be perfected, soldiers will be able to load and fire it with the press of a button, which is "light years ahead of what we have now," said Travis Theiss, the BAE lead hardware integrator.
The weapon, which took four years and 75 engineers to get to this stage, is intended to become part of the Army's Future Combat System, which by 2013 will consist of 14 integrated combat vehicles that can quickly share information. If BAE, which has 1,400 workers in Fridley, can win a production contract for the NLOS, it could mean hundreds of millions in new revenue for the company.
But the Army is interested only if BAE and its partners can get it just right, which is what the trips to this camp two hours north of the Twin Cities are about.
Since the operation of the NLOS system is about life and death, it requires testing, adjusting and testing some more, BAE program manager Rob Dahl said as he walked the dirt road toward his two-story machine. "We have gone from testing one [round] a day to 80 a day."
Dahl and his team began testing the NLOS system last month and fired their 600th mortar round Friday for a total cost of roughly $250,000. Firing the test rounds puts the robotic magazine loader through its paces and allows the gun muzzle's might to be measured.
More tests, probably next year, will measure its accuracy. Eventually, the machine sitting on the dunes here will have to prove it can nail a target 8 miles away.
Pleasing the 'green suits'
Bob Hartman, the BAE official in charge of the test, raised a giant red flag up a pole to signal that it was time for the 30 engineers and programmers to dart for cover inside two trailers. Outfitted with speakers, TV screens and scores of computers, the trailers were the base for recording every action, every pressure, temperature, sound, velocity and algorithm reading.
Theiss and BAE controls engineer Kellene Hadrava bolted past the concrete wall that separated them from the explosives and took their posts inside the command center. The pair studied the eight live images on the control panels and watched as Hartman and two others trucked in the live rounds.
Hartman jumped to the rear of the truck, unlocked white boxes and hoisted out a tall silver cylinder with a round inside. He hauled it into the tent, loaded it into the magazine and repeated the process four times before he and the other men sought safety themselves. Soon Hartman's voice boomed over the speaker ... "Five, four, three, two, one!"
The TV monitors sprang to life. The NLOS robotics sucked the round from its magazine and tilted it horizonally. The breech door sprang open and a black rod rammed the round through, letting all hell loose.
Boom! ... Boom! ... Boom! ... Boom! ... Boom!
Flames flashed from the muzzle, followed by smoke as BAE's dart-shaped test mortar shot into the distance, smashing into the ground 400 meters away. Dirt clouds billowed in protest.
"I have five rounds down range. It is now safe to move about," Hartman's voice boomed over the speaker.
"As we put more rounds down field, we'll have more data and confidence" in the system, said Maj. Ned Krafchick, an Army artillery officer who recently returned from his second tour in Iraq. "What this new system will give me is speed," which proved important in Iraq, when enemy fire sometimes came from three directions at once, he said.
With the all-clear given, Theiss left the command center, grabbed a flashlight, and scurried up the platform to check the gun muzzle for propellant residue. Mechanical engineer Amber Corbisiero raced in to inspect the breech ring and locking threads for damage.
Hadrava studied data and scribbled a note and waited for the next rounds to fire.
"It's a little nerve-racking," Hadrava said. "You always want things to go without a hitch. And generally they do, but you can't predict what the hardware will do."
Theiss said he was pleased.
"I can't imagine getting close to 16 35-pound rounds a minute if you are humping the rounds into the tube [by hand]," he said. "I can't wait to get this into the customers' hands because the green suits [Army] we have had up here are really excited about this."
http://www.jonesreport.com/articles/270407_bae_weapon.html
CAMP RIPLEY, MINN. - With each blast, the ground shook, the trailers rattled and the TVs danced.
Even the pros at this Army base flinched as BAE Systems' new mortar blasted five rounds into history with bangs so loud they made hearts skip.
Rodney Brown and nine of his fellow BAE engineers waited three years for this moment.
"It kind of threw me for a bit. It made me jump," said Brown, who has spent much of his time holed up designing firing and testing software inside BAE's armament systems headquarters in Fridley.
The $200 million prototype that the Army tried out this week here -- the NLOS Mortar System XM325 -- is meant to replace 30-year-old combat vehicles and give soldiers shelter from enemy fire while giving them automated loading and firing in a mortar system for the first time.
If the NLOS (non-line-of-sight) system can be perfected, soldiers will be able to load and fire it with the press of a button, which is "light years ahead of what we have now," said Travis Theiss, the BAE lead hardware integrator.
The weapon, which took four years and 75 engineers to get to this stage, is intended to become part of the Army's Future Combat System, which by 2013 will consist of 14 integrated combat vehicles that can quickly share information. If BAE, which has 1,400 workers in Fridley, can win a production contract for the NLOS, it could mean hundreds of millions in new revenue for the company.
But the Army is interested only if BAE and its partners can get it just right, which is what the trips to this camp two hours north of the Twin Cities are about.
Since the operation of the NLOS system is about life and death, it requires testing, adjusting and testing some more, BAE program manager Rob Dahl said as he walked the dirt road toward his two-story machine. "We have gone from testing one [round] a day to 80 a day."
Dahl and his team began testing the NLOS system last month and fired their 600th mortar round Friday for a total cost of roughly $250,000. Firing the test rounds puts the robotic magazine loader through its paces and allows the gun muzzle's might to be measured.
More tests, probably next year, will measure its accuracy. Eventually, the machine sitting on the dunes here will have to prove it can nail a target 8 miles away.
Pleasing the 'green suits'
Bob Hartman, the BAE official in charge of the test, raised a giant red flag up a pole to signal that it was time for the 30 engineers and programmers to dart for cover inside two trailers. Outfitted with speakers, TV screens and scores of computers, the trailers were the base for recording every action, every pressure, temperature, sound, velocity and algorithm reading.
Theiss and BAE controls engineer Kellene Hadrava bolted past the concrete wall that separated them from the explosives and took their posts inside the command center. The pair studied the eight live images on the control panels and watched as Hartman and two others trucked in the live rounds.
Hartman jumped to the rear of the truck, unlocked white boxes and hoisted out a tall silver cylinder with a round inside. He hauled it into the tent, loaded it into the magazine and repeated the process four times before he and the other men sought safety themselves. Soon Hartman's voice boomed over the speaker ... "Five, four, three, two, one!"
The TV monitors sprang to life. The NLOS robotics sucked the round from its magazine and tilted it horizonally. The breech door sprang open and a black rod rammed the round through, letting all hell loose.
Boom! ... Boom! ... Boom! ... Boom! ... Boom!
Flames flashed from the muzzle, followed by smoke as BAE's dart-shaped test mortar shot into the distance, smashing into the ground 400 meters away. Dirt clouds billowed in protest.
"I have five rounds down range. It is now safe to move about," Hartman's voice boomed over the speaker.
"As we put more rounds down field, we'll have more data and confidence" in the system, said Maj. Ned Krafchick, an Army artillery officer who recently returned from his second tour in Iraq. "What this new system will give me is speed," which proved important in Iraq, when enemy fire sometimes came from three directions at once, he said.
With the all-clear given, Theiss left the command center, grabbed a flashlight, and scurried up the platform to check the gun muzzle for propellant residue. Mechanical engineer Amber Corbisiero raced in to inspect the breech ring and locking threads for damage.
Hadrava studied data and scribbled a note and waited for the next rounds to fire.
"It's a little nerve-racking," Hadrava said. "You always want things to go without a hitch. And generally they do, but you can't predict what the hardware will do."
Theiss said he was pleased.
"I can't imagine getting close to 16 35-pound rounds a minute if you are humping the rounds into the tube [by hand]," he said. "I can't wait to get this into the customers' hands because the green suits [Army] we have had up here are really excited about this."
