U.S. Army Wants Cannons To Fire Projectiles 1,000 Miles

Video: Army Research Lab Scientists… Tells Warrior About Engineering New Explosives

By Kris Osborn – Warrior Maven

(Washington D.C.) Destroying enemy air defenses from the ground across hundreds of miles, hitting well defended inland areas inaccessible to even sea-launched Tomahawks able to travel 900 miles or overwhelming an approaching enemy mechanized armored force with suppressive fire to enable landwar maneuver … are all new, previously impossible missions which could become real if the Army is successful with its evolving and ambitious effort to engineer a first-of-its kinds 1,000 mile Long Range Cannon. 

“It’s a new paradigm. A new approach of delivery effects at strategic ranges, but it is not without challenges,” Brig. Gen. John Rafferty, Director, Precision Fires Cross Functional Team, Army Futures Command, told The National Interest in an interview. 

At the moment, the Army’s effort is primarily a science and technology initiative exploring the realm of the possible through collaborative efforts with the National Academies of Science and the Army Science Board. The National Academies of Science, Rafferty said, are now conducting a “feasibility examination” of the Long Range Cannon possibility. 

Interestingly, the prospect of 1,000-mile artillery attack mirrors some historic uses of how artillery was thought of years ago before the advent of precision-targeting 15 years ago. Over the years, artillery was thought of as an “area weapon” intended to blanket a target with suppressive fire to enable forces to reposition or maneuver on the battlefield. However, the advent of GPS-guided artillery with weapons such as the emergence of Excalibur in Iraq in 2007 reshaped this equation, introducing the tactical possibility of using 155mm artillery for pinpointed precision attack, almost like JDAMs had been able to do from the air for years prior to this. 

Some even likened this phenomenon to a kind of “precision revolution” as other weapons in addition to Excalibur such as the GPS, Inertial Measurement Unit-guided Guided Multiple Launch Rocket Systems, blasted onto the war scene in Iraq and Afghanistan. Ground weapons across the entire sphere of land war became massively more precise, offering ground commanders an entirely new set of attack possibilities and Combined Arms Maneuver strategies.