United States Army Enhances Artillery Fuses

ATK Awarded Contract

The United States Army was famous with the Germans in World War II for the accuracy, the technical sophistication and the ready availability of its artillery. Part of the deadly efficiency was as a result of the development of the proximity fuze. This quest for a better shell continues today.

The perpetual problem faced by the artillery in all ages has been not just placing their shot on the enemy, but avoiding friendly fire casualties. This task was made more complex in counter insurgency wars like Vietnam, when the Viet Cong would "hug the perimeter," meaning get as close to US troops as possible during shelling, hoping to force the artillery to stop firing to avoid friendly fire deaths. The more accurate the artillery is, the more able it is to fire close to our own soldiers without hitting them.

A new fuze developed by ATK will help the army to do that.

ATK (Alliant Techsystems) has been awarded a ten million dollar contract to produce the M1155A1 Enhanced Portable Inductive Artillery Fuze Setter (EPIAFS). More than 400 such systems will be produced and shipped to the Army, which will be able to extend the contract to 2011, if necessary. The fuze is designed to fit 155 mm projectiles, says Bart Olson, Vice President and General Manager of the Tactical Propulsion and Controls Division, Baltimore, MD.

The new fuze has all of the capabilities of older systems, and enhancements, including "automated fire mission transfer over the inductive line" and a capability to turn on the GPS system on the shells, systems such as the Excalibur and the Precision Guided Kit (PGK). Shells fired from various platforms will benefit, for example, the "M109A6 Paladin self-propelled howitzer, M777A2 lightweight towed howitzer and the future Non-Line-Of Sight (NLOS) cannon."

Tests of other systems have brought shell accuracy to within a fifty meter radius; the new system may improve that to a 20 meter radius.

The new system takes the place of the M1155 Portable Inductive Artillery Fuze Setter (PIAFS).