LONDON - Britain and France have agreed to a common process to qualify the gun and ammunition for a revolutionary new 40mm cannon design to be used by the armored forces of both countries.
This is the culmination of a 15-year development effort by CTA International, a joint venture of BAE Systems and Nexter, to field a weapon whose projectile is encased inside a cylinder with the propellant packed around it.
CTA International officials say that if the testing of around 20,000 rounds goes to plan, the cannon and most of its ammunition types should be cleared for action by 2012.
CTAI Chairman David Leslie told reporters attending a March 18 briefing here that the qualification effort would begin in the fourth quarter of this year.
The joint venture, based at Bourges in central France, has spent 75 million euros ($102 million) developing the weapon. The French and British governments have plowed an additional 25 million euros into the work, mostly to fund turret demonstrator programs using the weapon.
A spokesman for the Anglo-French company said the two nations agreed on a position on the approval of the new cannon and case-telescoped ammunition at a recent meeting.
"Discussions over funding the test work are ongoing," he said.
The British have already mandated use of the weapon on a turret update of the Army's Warrior infantry fighting vehicle and the scout version of the upcoming Future Rapid Effects System armored vehicle.
France has yet to commit to an order for the weapon.
CTAI Managing Director Gilles Sarreau said the company has had good feedback about the cannon from the French Ministry of Defense's procurement arm, the DGA.
The French military is expected to deploy the cannon on at least part of its VBCI, AMX-10 and upcoming EBRC armored vehicle fleets. What's not clear is whether it will opt for a manned or unmanned turret. Both types have been the subject of demonstrator programs using the Warrior as a test platform.
The design of the round has allowed CTAI to replace the normal breech arrangement with a static ammunition feeder with less than half the parts of a standard gun.
The round is fed into a novel rotating breech via a hollow trunnion. CTAI officials said this allows the breech to be well forward of the crew, allowing better fightability and communications.
The company said the novel cylindrical packaging, which has the appearance of a large beer can, halves the length of the round compared with conventional 40mm ammunition, and improves the volumetric efficiency by 30 percent for a given level of performance.
Company officials said the cannon design takes up about the same space inside the turret as a 25mm gun, but gives the punch of a 50mm weapon.
"I believe the case-telescoped armament system will offer a step change in both military effect and cost-effectiveness," Leslie said. "It's the biggest advance in gun technology since the advent of rifling over 100 years ago."
Qualification will initially cover the 40mm cannon and associated armor-piercing, training and general-purpose rounds. Development of an air-burst round is expected to be complete at the end of the year, and is expected to follow down the qualification route about nine months behind the other ammunition types.
CTAI also has tested a guided munition using a smaller dart based on Thales UK's hypervelocity Starstreak anti-air missile.
Leslie said the two companies had proved the guided munition could work, but the idea has been sidelined to focus on current requirements.
The CTAI executive said other calibers like 120mm, 105mm and 25mm had been looked at for development, but for now at least, the money required outweighs the expected benefits.
The case-telescoped 40mm package is at system readiness level 7 with the airburst round at level 6.
Officials from the Anglo-French company told reporters at the briefing that resources are being ramped up to deliver readiness level 8 and design freeze by the end of the year.
Billets for 60 barrels have been purchased, and additional guns are being assembled at CTAI's Bourges factory.
Discussion on the supply of ammunition components continues. Company officials confirmed that the British ammunition will be assembled at BAE's Glascoed munitions plant.
The new cannon is scheduled to make its debut on an updated Warrior vehicle sometime in 2013.
An invitation to tender to provide a new turret and cannon for the Warrior as part of a planned wider sustainment update is expected next month.
BAE is battling Lockheed Martin to supply an updated Warrior turret to replace a system that has a number of serious shortcomings. A decision on a winner is expected next year.
CTAI still has eyes on the U.S. market as well. The first integration work on the armament system took place in a Bradley infantry fighting vehicle and in the subsequently cancelled U.S.-U.K. Tracer scout vehicle program.
Leslie said the new cannon fitted easily into the space left by removing the Bradley's 25mm cannon.
"I am confident the U.S. military will fit the weapon eventually," he said.
