SP, MLRS and SPAA Developments

[MarkSheppard]

Lithuania is starting the groundwork to withdraw from the cluster munition pact.

A draft resolution was put forth by the Lithuanian Ministry of Defense; if it's ratified by the President and Parliament, Lithuania will withdraw from the Convention and the country will no longer be prohibited to procure, stockpile and use cluster munitions.

[MarkSheppard]

Originally Posted by DRG

In many ways this [Typhon] is a weapon system that is beyond the scope of the game........at best borderline

Revisiting this in light of the recent news that the Army will now deploy Typhon to Europe as well.

https://breakingdefense.com/2024/07/...e-its-borders/

WASHINGTON — Come 2026, the US Army can begin deploying some of its new, longer-range munitions to Germany under a new agreement the two nations inked ahead of the NATO summit.

“The United States will begin episodic deployments of the long-range fires capabilities of its Multi-Domain Task Force [MDTF] in Germany in 2026, as part of planning for enduring stationing of these capabilities in the future,” the White House announced in a statement today.

“When fully developed, these conventional long-range fires units will include SM-6, Tomahawk, and developmental hypersonic weapons, which have significantly longer range than current land-based fires in Europe,” it added.

While I agree with you that two (Tomahawk and future Hypersonic Weapon) of Typhon's missiles are beyond the scope of SPMBT; the third -- the SM-6 Standard Missile -- isn't.

The SM-6 is approximately 3,300 lb (1,500 kg) -- it's a very big, very long ranged missile -- comparable in size to Russian (OBAT11) Unit 294 - S-300PS which has the 5V55K S-300K weapon -- that specific Russian SAM is 3,260 lb (1,480 kg).

Additionally, SM-6 is the first major ARH SAM the US has (other than Patriot PAC-3 which is optimized more for ABM engagements) -- it has an enlarged, bigger AIM-120D seeker head; a big difference over classic PATRIOT.

US heavy SAMs have gone through three different generations of guidance:

Semi-Active Radar Homing (SARH) (Nike Ajax/Hercules) -- Radar on ground illuminates target, and missile homes in on reflected energy.

Track Via Missile (TVM) (PATRIOT PAC-1 & PAC-2) - Radar on ground illuminates target, and missile homes in on reflected energy; but can also transmit a digital "picture" of what it's seeing back to the ground unit, enabling it to deal with heavy clutter/jamming/ECM.

Active Radar Homing (ARH) (SM-6 / PATRIOT PAC-3 / S-400) -- In addition to the above modes; there's an active seeker in the missile, so the missile can autonomously home; as well as get a better picture from being much closer to the target than the launcher radar.

[MarkSheppard]

Originally Posted by MarkSheppard

Lithuania is starting the groundwork to withdraw from the cluster munition pact.

A draft resolution was put forth by the Lithuanian Ministry of Defense; if it's ratified by the President and Parliament, Lithuania will withdraw from the Convention and the country will no longer be prohibited to procure, stockpile and use cluster munitions.

https://www.delfi.lt/ru/news/politic...asov-120037152

Google translated

Lithuania withdraws from convention banning cluster munitions

On Thursday, the Seimas decided to denounce the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which bans their use. After Lithuania's withdrawal from this international agreement, there are no longer any restrictions on the purchase, stockpiling, and, in the event of war, use of cluster munitions. The withdrawal from the convention was supported by 103 members of the Seimas, one deputy voted against, and four abstained.

One of the initiators of the issue, Minister of Defence Laurynas Kaščiūnas , claims that the change in the geopolitical situation prompted the withdrawal from the convention.

"Such conventions are significant when all countries adhere to them. In this case, the problem is that the Russian Federation, which is carrying out aggression against Ukraine and has imperialist ambitions, does not follow these rules," L. Kaščiūnas said at a session of the Seimas. "When we ratified this convention and joined it, it was a different era. Now everything is much more complicated. Therefore, it would be very wrong if the state, preparing for its defense, immediately said what capacities it will not use for its defense," the Minister of Defense noted.

L. Kaščiūnas also assured that modern cluster munitions are much safer, and the consequences they cause can be controlled. Discussions about Lithuania's withdrawal from the Oslo Convention banning the use of cluster munitions began last summer, when then-Defense Minister Arvydas Anušauskas expressed such an expectation. The Defense Ministry called for a reassessment of the provisions of this international document for reasons of national security. Lithuania ratified the Convention on Cluster Munitions in 2010.

[FASTBOAT TOUGH]

Still cleaning!

USA: I completely forgot the next as the date of the article will clearly show. That being said it has happened and we got them. I speak of the French BONUS rounds. Concerning Ref. 1 & 2 we purchased additional BONUS rounds on Mar 03, 2020.
https://www.edrmagazine.eu/u-s-army-...om-bae-systems
https://www.baesystems.com/en/product/155-bonus
(Good review of capabilities an "click" on News to confirm above and additional orders.

So, we have the above date for what I believe to be the second order.

I found a couple of sources to show the USA and by extension the USMC (I had posted an article of Marines in an exercise I believe in Africa with the French firing the BONUS from our 155mm about the time of the above date.) had these rounds in 2000. I've thrown the BS Flag in the air when I saw that date. That was the year that France and Sweden put them in service. In 2008 the French used them in combat for the first time.

I can't find an initial START for them but, based on the above information I feel comfortable in recommending A START for BOTH the USA and USMC of UPDATED NOW TO JAN 2019. See next.

Found the following during my UK BONUS informational search. This dated 09 OCT 2018.
https://www.baesystems.com/en/articl...ided-munitions

And like the tanks the CORPS had, they get their ammo from the Army as well; they "own" the arsenals (Picatinny, N.J. etc.) and are responsible for the procurement of the same from private industry.

UK: Are operationally now using what is considered probably still the best SPA out there ("Shoot and Scoot" 30s or slightly less. ). The British Army has been training on these for quite some time so they're ready to use them now.
UK/ADD/ARCHER/COPY/SWEDEN/BW L52 ARCHER/UNIT 416/START JUN 2024/END DEC 2030/AMMO/BONUS ALSO PROCURED. //
https://www.armyrecognition.com/news...oogle_vignette

As a side note SWEDEN has purchased the latest version of ARCHER 8x8.
https://www.edrmagazine.eu/additiona...ion-for-sweden
(This will require further research, seem to remember posting a different article from Military-Today on it-miss that site from the Ukraine.)

MBT will have to wait it's late I'm tired and go back to work later this afternoon.

So Good Whatever!!

Regards,
Pat

[DRG]

The Archer is already in the Brit OOB. albeit 2 months early. both as an on and off map unit

[MarkSheppard]

Some data on the Belgian M109A2/M109A3 upgrade program into the M109A4BE standard:

https://x.com/ChungTzuW/status/18198...587476/photo/3

Includes a decent angled away top photo from the rear.

https://x.com/ChungTzuW/status/18198...587476/photo/2

Data on the Semi Automatic Loader (SAL) they put into the M109A4BE modernization.

What happened was that as soon as the modernization of all 64 x M109A4BE was completed in 2015; they were immediately put up for sale by the (then) Defense Minister André Flahaut.

The private company that bought them in 2015 then turned around and sold them in 2022 to the UK who further rehabbed them and sent them to Ukraine.

https://armyrecognition.com/news/arm...yed-in-ukraine

[Masters]

Russia's missing Buk-M1-2, Buk-M2, Buk-M3, S-350 Vityaz', S-500 Prometheus, Tornado-G (BM-21 Grad's successor with newly developed ammo, increased range up to 40 km, faster firing capability with better precision and armor pen).

[blazejos]

Proposition to use OOB Red for store Soviet Union/Russian weapons of less importance in similar way like in SPWW2 store rare German equipment in Blue OOB that may free many necessary slots in soviet/Russia OOB