Ahhhhh ! Yet another "procurement" issue to wade into.......
Doesn't anyone out there read the CF national rag " The Maple Leaf " ? About two monts ago, they showcased the stop-gap measure to respond to the demise of the M109. Yep....the interim plan is to slap the present 105mm C3 ordnance on top of the MLVW. By the time the bugs are worked out ( ie: stability in firing at all angles in a 6400 mil context, stability during travel etc. ), we will have a new MLVW-like vehicle. The Gagetown equipment gurus should be able to shed some light on this. ( I've been out of there nine years now ).
Latest street talk that we Western guys heard was that the M109 is NOT being replaced. Any fire support above regimental level will come from coalition sources. ( As someone mentioned in this thread, and he is 'bang on', it is 105's and mortars for now.) No new artillery systems are on the immediate horizon.
The last thing we need is another GIAT ! The British Light Gun, with its' L119 barrel ( which accomodates M1 series ammo ), won the competition hands down. We ended up buying the barrels and refurbing the C1's. ( When your Sorel barrels are almost shot out, and you have no money....but need an operational gun, you do what you have to !! ). We also rebuilt the L5 Pack howitzer in the same project. The L5 then got binned five years later. Then, we bought the GIAT, which never came close to the Brit Light Gun. Lastly, most of our allies, including the US and Aussies, bought Brit Light Guns.
The Belgians bought the GIAT for their Para Commando Battery, which is their artillery contribution to the AMF(L) Force Arty Regt. They alerted us to the fact that the quadrant elevation, ( that value which you set on your LG1 GIAT range quadrant IAW Fire Orders ), is not true to the axis of the bore ( once the barrel is elevated to the value ordered, you are missing anywhere from 3 to 12 mils. If you apply the value in meters downrange for every missing mil of elevation...." Houston...we have a problem !!" Rather than persue the matter in court, we quietly made the problem go away by compensating for the missing values in the MV program of the ballistic computer. Also, the range quadrant error is not consistent from gun to gun.
Wheter or not we ever did refurb all LG1 elevation mechanisms to sort the problem ( and it was the elevating gear ), I don;t know.
Anyway, two cents and a war story for historical perspective.....
Ubique
Curious thing about the GIAT LG1....it was built for export only. The French Army didn't buy it. Just Canada (29), Belgium (7), and Mayanmar(18).