The Brazilian Army has taken delivery of thirty two refurbished and modernised M109 A5 BR-Plus self-propelled Howitzers and five M88A1 recovery vehicles from BAE systems.
Local media has reported that the Brazilian Army acquired these surplus vehicle stocks from the United States in 2014 in order to bolster its mobile artillery and armored recovery capacity.
The acquisitions were managed through the United States’ Foreign Military Sales (FMS) and Excess Defense Articles (EDA) programs.
The USD$54 million modernisation package implemented by BAE systems includes an overhaul of the vehicles targeting systems and the integration of modern communications and radar systems provided by contractors Harris and Thales.
The effort to retrofit these vehicle stocks is part of a wider Brazilian Army initiative to improve the overall readiness and efficacy of its armored fleets.
Under the terms of the contract, BAE Systems were to overhaul and upgrade 32 self-propelled howitzers to the M109A5+ configuration.
BAE say that the vehicles include items specifically tailored to the Brazilian Army’s requirements. In addition, the company will provide spares and training as well as live fire support and field service support following delivery.
Anyone know what will replace the british AS 90 in years to come? We dont have many left now right enough, but what a bargain at £300 million for 179 units from vickers in the 90s.
Perhaps our M109’s could have been refurbished saving the spend on the AS90’s as they were cheaper to run?
M109 Paladins would have been a good option, though still would be getting long in the tooth now mate.
54 remaining in service our a total of 79 remaining in total. Nothing in the pipeline as the RA has been bled dry of funding for gunnery, and smart munitions. Maybe a small buy of wheeled 155mm for the waste of time Strike Brigades, maybe 1 Regiment worth, but nothing in the development pipeline. It will need to be an off the shelf purchase as the AS90 is pretty worn out and even an updated 52 calibre barrel, if they ever managed to sort it out, wouldn’t change the fact the whole vehicle is pretty shagged out. My bro is… Read more »
I’ve read a letter from D-RA that stated a replacement for the 2 Light Gun regiments for the Strike Brigades was funded.
Since then what I’m reading Is a single wheeled type bought 4 regiments worth to replace both AS90 and Light Gun. 7 RHA and 29 RA would remain Light Gun of course.
The RA has been neglected for too long.
Any new kit is welcome mate, but numbers again, woefully small, no depth (avoid the pun!) and little redundancy. Cheers.