Ashley Roque
After the Navy ended work on BAE Systems’s Hypervelocity Projectile in 2021, the Pentagon’s Strategic Capabilities Office (SCO) picked it up under the Multi-Domain Artillery Cannon System program — a 155mm self-propelled artillery system with the Hypervelocity Projectiles. The effort is in the process of being handed over to the Army where service officials are finalizing requirements and calling the weapon the Cannon-Based Air Defense initiative, according to Lt. Gen. Robert Rasch, who heads up the service’s Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office (RCCTO).
“It’s been an evolution,” Rasch told Breaking Defense during an Aug. 7 interview in Huntsville, Ala. Part of the process right now, he explained, is deciding just what to keep, what to sole source to companies and what parts to compete out.
“Some of it will absolutely be competed,” Rasch added. “We’re looking at each of the components that SCO has done. There’s a [155mm] cannon, there’s a radar, there’s a battle manager, there’s the resupply aspects … and [there’s] the projectile itself. Some of those technologies are more mature than others.”
While Rasch didn’t disclose just what components might be ripe for competition, he noted that in some cases, there may be sole source deals because that would “probably make sense,” but if there are multiple viable vendors it might make sense to “open it up to competition.”
What isn’t clear is if Rasch’s team plans to follow through with the late-2024 announcement of its intent to sole-source cannon and projectile work to BAE, or if that decision is now up in the air too as part of the ongoing requirements relook. However, he asserted that no contracts for the revamped effort have been awarded.
Several other aspects are under consideration too.
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