The U.S. is rumored to announce an arms sale to Taiwan of the M109A6 self-propelled gun. (Photo taken from the official website of the U.S. Army)
The Biden administration is rumored to be releasing the latest wave of arms sales to Taiwan, and the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Taipei Office of Information Technology (AIT) has notified Taiwan of the M109A6 self-propelled gun purchase. In response to media inquiries about the report, Republic of China Defense Minister Chiu Kuo-ching said today (19) that the military procurement case has been promoted for a long time, but has not yet received official notification from the U.S. government.
Photo: Minister of National Defense Qiu Guozheng stressed that the U.S. government has not yet notified the M109A6 self-propelled artillery sales case.
However, since the U.S. military is about to phase out the M109A6 and procure the M109A7, the next issue for the Ministry of National Defense will be whether the U.S. military sale of the M109A6 to Taiwan, which will soon face budgetary provisions for performance enhancement, will be accepted by the government and the public.
The United News reported that the full letter of offer for the “Sharp Timing Project” and the “new 155mm artillery precision munitions” was approved by President Tsai Ing-wen last year and submitted to the U.S. side for processing. The report quoted senior officials as confirming that AIT informed Taiwan in March that the Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) of the U.S. Department of Defense would make an announcement on the M109A6 self-propelled gun sales to Taiwan in the near future.
It is understood that although the M109A6 has been equipped with automatic fire control systems, GPS, ground and air radio, automatic fire control and other equipment, becoming an extremely advanced artillery fire system, the M109A7 has taken it to the next level, with a digital fire control system, GPS and digital navigation system, tactical data chain, and a self-diagnostic detection computer, further digitized and networked to quickly provide gun crews with relevant The M109A7 has been equipped with a digital fire control system, GPS and digital navigation system, tactical data chain, and a self-diagnostic detection computer.
In terms of firepower, the M109A7 still uses the same M284 155mm 39x howitzer as the M109A6, with a maximum range of 24km with the normal howitzer and 30km with the boosted extended range rounds, and is compatible with all 155mm precision-guided rounds and guidance kits in service. The M982 Excalibur precision-guided projectile is compatible with all 155mm precision-guided projectiles and guidance kits in service, and up to 40km with the precision-guided M982.
The Army is also building the project under the name of “Sharp Thunder Project” and “New 155mm Artillery Precision Ammunition”, with $17.3 billion, $85.231 million in 2020, and plans to install them in batches from 2023 to 2025. This year, we will first start the pre-construction of ancillary facilities. It is understood that, due to the military procurement budget crowding, the initial stage of the project has been reduced significantly to reduce the number of procurement, and the procurement of 40 vehicles.
The M109A6 self-propelled gun is the main artillery piece of the U.S. artillery force, and differs from our current A2 and A5 models in that it can calculate initial firing plots through the Automatic Firing Control System (AFCS), which can use Doppler muzzle velocity radar to perform ballistic calculations, automatically set target plots, automatically aim and automatically re-sight after firing, and randomly calibrate the projectile without separate correction, allowing it to quickly perform single-gun orientation tasks and single-gun firing. The military described it as “a vehicle that can shoot the effect of an artillery company”.
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