J-10
06-02-2004, 04:35 AM
By Nathan Hodge, Defense Today May 27, 2004
After ironing out kinks in the system, the Army this month successfully
concluded an important series of tests on the Stryker Mobile Gun System (MGS), Defense Today has learned.
According to an Army source, the MGS is now "on a glide path" toward approval of low-rate production, a decision that is due in August or September.
The MGS is a variant of the Stryker wheeled armored vehicle made by General Dynamics Corp. As envisioned by the Army, the MGS would mainly be an infantry-support vehicle, providing bunker-busting capability with its 105 mm cannon.
The first Stryker-equipped brigade currently is seeing service in Iraq. If low-rate production is approved, the first MGS could be fielded as early as next year.
However, the MGS experienced some hiccups in development, including a cramped crew compartment, glitches in the ammunition-handling system and the "halo effect"—a ring of overpressure and blast debris caused by firing the cannon, which originally had a perforated muzzle brake at the end to lessen recoil.
The Army source told Defense Today that all of those problems long since have been solved, allowing Limited User Testing, or LUT, to move forward. Those tests were completed at Fort Knox, Ky., this month. Originally, the LUT was scheduled for last year, but the testing was suspended while problems identified earlier were remedied.
"The limited user testing was temporarily suspended back in October," the source said. "... After that we went into about a sixty-day period, there were numerous fixes implemented on the vehicle, and we started a series of user demonstrations and exercises starting in the January time frame to validate these fixes before we entered LUT."
Through these demonstrations, the source said, "the system performed excellent[ly]."
http://news.xinhuanet.com/mil/2004-06/02/xinsrc_540601021412425304264.jpg
http://news.xinhuanet.com/mil/2004-06/02/xinsrc_530601021412574298642.jpg
http://news.xinhuanet.com/mil/2004-06/02/xinsrc_540601021412045129693.jpg
After ironing out kinks in the system, the Army this month successfully
concluded an important series of tests on the Stryker Mobile Gun System (MGS), Defense Today has learned.
According to an Army source, the MGS is now "on a glide path" toward approval of low-rate production, a decision that is due in August or September.
The MGS is a variant of the Stryker wheeled armored vehicle made by General Dynamics Corp. As envisioned by the Army, the MGS would mainly be an infantry-support vehicle, providing bunker-busting capability with its 105 mm cannon.
The first Stryker-equipped brigade currently is seeing service in Iraq. If low-rate production is approved, the first MGS could be fielded as early as next year.
However, the MGS experienced some hiccups in development, including a cramped crew compartment, glitches in the ammunition-handling system and the "halo effect"—a ring of overpressure and blast debris caused by firing the cannon, which originally had a perforated muzzle brake at the end to lessen recoil.
The Army source told Defense Today that all of those problems long since have been solved, allowing Limited User Testing, or LUT, to move forward. Those tests were completed at Fort Knox, Ky., this month. Originally, the LUT was scheduled for last year, but the testing was suspended while problems identified earlier were remedied.
"The limited user testing was temporarily suspended back in October," the source said. "... After that we went into about a sixty-day period, there were numerous fixes implemented on the vehicle, and we started a series of user demonstrations and exercises starting in the January time frame to validate these fixes before we entered LUT."
Through these demonstrations, the source said, "the system performed excellent[ly]."
http://news.xinhuanet.com/mil/2004-06/02/xinsrc_540601021412425304264.jpg
http://news.xinhuanet.com/mil/2004-06/02/xinsrc_530601021412574298642.jpg
http://news.xinhuanet.com/mil/2004-06/02/xinsrc_540601021412045129693.jpg