If we think bout it, 21 rounds in 5 mn means a bit more than 4 rounds per minute, for a crew of 3 plus 2 (or 3) for the resupply team. A GOAT crew could do it with one hand tied in the back. GOAT's rate is far quicker and Pzh is 10 rds per mn, znd this is assuming Archer really does 5 mn

I think it is safe to say you are not a fan of the Archer, either in its original form or the latest as shown at DSEi. Indeed, but you have to admit it is a key point, plus if your resupply vehicle is not there with its crane there is no resupply, and you have to have a limber truck per gun. For Ca...

According to BAe it takes less than 5 min to reload all 21 rounds into the new version of the Archer, using a specialised Limber vehicle based on the same 8x8 MAN  5 mn for 21 rounds is to be compared with 10 rds per mn for the Pzh 2000 60 rounds : 6 mn, without a dedicated limber veh, or 12 rounds...

They took also half of the batch destined for Norway... the other half could (?) be purchased cheaply for use as training pieces - if we select the MAN version I think they bought all the guns built for Norway (Norway paid not to have them, that is quite telling...) plus now Sweden wants to buy 36 ...

"Makes the Navy jealous?"

It does, because it's the cost of a frigate
(And it doesn't float)

I heard there is a fully automated shell resupply system but that the Danes were happy with a semi automated version

As I said earlier 1. CAESAR DK 2. RCH And again price matters, if you want a gun for high intensity you need lots of ammo (dumb, and smart), plus rockets plus long range artillery compatible Istar. If you buy a gun with no budget left for the rest you will have the kit but you won't be ready for hig...

I have no doubt about the reliability or Archer, but as a warfighting asset I think it has major flaws. The main one is that you need a resupply vehicle, if it is destroyed, or not available etc you simply can't resupply from the ground, unlike Caesar and RCH. You have to resupply often with a rate ...

The DK Caesar looks good, with 36 ammo, better suited for high intensity warfare than the 6x6, and affordable. The Zuzana puzzles me because it is higher than Caesar, longer, with a turret and yet weights the same, the turret must not be heavilly armoured. They both have the same good chassis. Arche...

Yes Himars is quite fast to reload but in a high intensity scenario I'd rather have 12 rockets so that the resupply movements are done less often assuming there could be missions with more than 6 rockets.

I agree, MRSI is an important feature for high intensity warfare (less so for counter-insurgency) because it adds power to the first salvo. As far as I know most guns have it or declare they have it, or are getting there. I suppose it is not too hard to do it, it is software.

I was coming back to the thread : what best capability choices for the RA ?

" A. BM-30 Smerch can fire twelve three-hundred-millimeter rockets to a maximum range of fifty-six miles"

BM 30 is on a truck, not a Boxer-like chassis.
I suppose the millions of rubles saved make it possible to buy dozens of rockets.

"I do still think we should move towards HIMARs rather than the existing heavy platform for the same reasons we are probably moving to a wheeled SP155." I agree, rockets should be on wheels, it makes sense, their range gives the choice to deploy anywhere. Himars is however more fitted for ...

GPS type rounds tough ae becoming essential in Urban warfare these days as it is no longer acceptable for most armies to launch a barrage of "Dumb" shells for fear of causing civilian casualties. As for weight of fire, one thing is for certain we are not going to increase the number of gu...

"That depends" Well, no. You will usually have 10 digit grids of all points in the area in front of you (these things are not done at the last minute), but in the cases discribed above you may not be sure that the enemy is right there right now, and in what size and shape, therefore no one...

"That's not entirely true either. All guides systems use a combination of GPS and inertial navigation"

You are not going to do area fire missions, sometimes preventive covering fire missions where you don't know accurately where the enemy is with smart ammo are you ?

"So there are comms afterall."

Yes, emergency comms, like flares...

I meant that if we think of high intensity warfare we can't just accept we won't be firing when our frontline units and FOOs are jammed for a certain period, either with standard jammers or jamming munitions, or if batteries are jammed. We can't just do nothing as the frontline units are attacked. W...

"Without comms no fire mission will be executed, simple as that".
You are obviously not a gunner then.

If you are jammed (GPS) you can't use guided, and if your communications are jammed the only thing you can do for defensive fires would be area fire missions

Yes, my point is for suppressive fires we now need more guns and a lot of HE, and we can't have a lot of both if the guns are hugely and unnecessarily expensive. Indeed i wasn't very clear, i also meant that we also need GMLRS, which is also expensive, but not really for suppressive fires. The only ...

Turret systems have their advantages and inconvenients. 2 inconvenients are (1) the absence of back up in case any part of the loading system goes wrong. (2) a long time to resupply. I don't know for the RCH, shells seems good if similar to PZH but charges ? Archer, i have not seen 5 mn but 10 mn (f...

is My point was : saying "as sophisticated as K9" isn't an operational requirement, it might be a goal of you are part of Artec joint venture, but no operational requirement. That said, i agree, RCH is much better than K9, without a shadow of a doubt (except that it has yet to be put to t...

"about as sophisticated as K-9", good point, so why not buy K9 then ? It will be 40% cheaper and maybe 30% when fully automated.