The Ministry of Defence says it is still too early to confirm delivery timelines or fleet size for the RCH 155 wheeled artillery system, despite ongoing trials of two guns.
The Ministry of Defence has declined to provide planned in-service dates or total numbers for the Army’s future RCH 155 wheeled artillery system, stating that the programme remains in its assessment phase and has yet to reach contract. Responding to questions from MPs, defence minister Luke Pollard said the Mobile Fires Platform programme, which will deliver the Remote-Controlled Howitzer 155mm mounted on the Boxer vehicle, has not yet progressed far enough to allow confirmation of initial or full operating capability dates.
“The Mobile Fires Platform Project… remains in its assessment phase and is subject to contract,” Pollard said, adding that it is “too early to confirm platform numbers, delivery timelines and expected in-service dates.”
The response also rules out any current disclosure of how many RCH 155 systems the Army ultimately intends to procure, with the MOD stressing that analysis of future equipment fielding is still underway. While declining to provide firm commitments, Pollard confirmed that two RCH 155 systems have already been purchased and are being used to support further testing and evaluation.
“We are making good progress however with the purchase of two of these systems which are undergoing further testing,” he told Parliament. The RCH 155, developed by KNDS, is intended to provide the British Army with a highly mobile 155mm artillery capability following the donation of AS90 howitzers to Ukraine.
Artillery, helicopters, increasing defence expenditure… the UK government is dragging it’s feet badly. These are things that needed to be sorted yesterday! Defence is (or should be) the first priority of any government. Nothing else is important when your very sovereignty isn’t secure.
Considering Starmer’s recent form, defence is also likely to witness a U-Turn with a reduction in promised spending. Confidence in his government is dwindling on a daily basis.
I thought we just had one gun, Germany 2, Just ask Ukraine how they work there are first user. Normal MOD story, nothing about a lot of nothing just lots of words and what might, could happen. Same boring crap from the MOD.
I thought we had bought 3 guns of which one was going to Germany for evaluation.
And no one was shocked. Shame because is looks like a fine piece of kit.
Apart from the wheels, never understood the current obsession of putting wheels on an artillery piece’s these days. More mobility is all well and good, but mobility doesn’t mean much once off road and in the mud.
Seconded
That was going to be my post.
Surely in essence it can be considered as more nuanced swings and roundabouts, wheels get you to where you need it far quicker and without more generally the need for transporters, tracks clearly the better bet off road certainly in trickier conditions and environments. I am not qualified to make that judgement or how often a cross country wheeled vehicle is going to get bogged down statistically and how much more limiting it will be typically in a European conflict, Ukraine probably has provided experts with some great evidence mind. We were mentioning the Stalwart the other day and I do remember when young how impressive it was in the very wet and muddy conditions of army assault courses even if it did get stuck on occasion, so I will leave it to others with experience to make a more educated judgement overall but I will say specialist wheeled vehicles are pretty damn good in most conditions, just not extreme ones so again it’s a matter of how often you encounter those conditions and one would think to have something available in event of those extreme conditions being a factor, both would be ideal my questions here dictating the balance. Sadly I doubt we are going to get the latter are we, that may perhaps in the extremes of sorely limited budgets be, if painfully, acceptable if other requirements are acquired instead AND major front line powers like Poland and Germany have good supplies of tracked artillery to provide that capability. Hardly ideal I admit.
I bet they’re deployed on transporters.
I have no information about this so the question is probably going to sound very basic, but is it an 8×8 drive system? And just how much would it take to bog down an 8×8?
I had heard that the Stryker 8×8 was pretty effective even in mud and snow. Admittedly, the Stryker is half the weight of the RCH, though.
But increased speed, a crew of just 2 (?) and a quicker shoot and scoot time seem like positives. It sounds like it is 30 kph faster than a tracked Boxer with considerably more road range as well.
It is no PzH 2000/Paladin but it has some serious up sides.
Honestly I wouldn’t mind some PZH 2000 as an alternative to RCH, but of course I doubt we are even going get enough RCH for our depleted artillery force
Ahh, that old chestnut, “Wheeled Artillery”.
A much discussed subject in Caravan/Motorhome circles ! Is it better to tow and unhitch with all the set up time or Drive and parkup with the minimum of effort ready to move at short notice ?
I should think In todays “Shoot and Scoot” warfare, the latter is the better option.
Completely missed the point I was making unlike some others in this thread, but you live up to your name I guess
Now please don’t respond, you’ll simply be ignored like some of the other mouth breathers on this site
Christ, what crawlked up your arse to make you so nasty ?
Kin ell mate, it was humour 🤦♂️
Ahh, I get it now. 😉
Project Wavell has been running how many years? The SDR, a tome full of waffle and long words devoid of any real detail, was a year ago, maybe longer, I forget, and the DIP keeps delaying.
And they say they’re still analysing how many guns they might buy?
Things like this, are why so many don’t take Britain seriously any more.
FFS, look at the orbat, look at the personnel available, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to work it out. The original requirement was for 116 guns when there were 4 Regiments to equip!!
Now there are less.
Even if they have a batch 2 down the line with another reorg and more Regiments created by some miracle they’ll still know a figure.
What happened to the ” up to” statements used so often if they want to keep it fluid?
I agree, if they don’t know what number they need by now when the hell would they? Fact is they have a very good idea, but as we know it’s how many we can afford that counts so they won’t reveal the former, only eventually much delayed the latter, which will be meekly presented with a straight face AS the former, while no doubt the military merely bite their tongues if they want a career extension and make do hoping they never have to actually fulfil all the assignment promises the politicians make on their behalf.
An order of at least 8 but not more than 10. Probably fitted for but not with the gun.
No dates, no numbers, no action ! Amazing. Who would have thought it?
They can’t really order it until the DIP is sorted out and they know how much money the army is getting. At £10m a pop, it is quite a big-ticket item.
The number 116 was bandied about at an early stage, but I think it was stated as 96 in the Mobile Fires Programme. 96 seems a lot, it would give 5 regts of 18 guns with 6 for training. We only need two regts, one each for 12 and 20 Bde Gps. It looks on the heavy side for 4 and 7 light Bdes but who knows.
As we speak, DIP is being slashed to make it fit the reduced budget.
Bimbling
They’re waiting for the barrel factory to open and start manufacturing so they can say Made in Britain aren’t they 😐
I am going to hazard a guess and say the number being ordered in the foreseeable future is zero.
I wonder what its turning circle is given it will probably have to execute a U turn any day soon?
😁
Nobody is surprised are they? It will be exactly the same with the landrover replacement and Babcock waiting to get going with Patria!