The U.S. Army is buying additional advanced BONUS munitions manufactured by BAE Systems and Nexter of France.
BONUS is a 155-millimeter munition designed for destroying armored targets and will be employed by the US Army’s fleet of M109 self-propelled howitzers and M777 ultra-lightweight towed howitzers, say BAE.
The US Army is purchasing BONUS through the NATO Support and Procurement Agency (NSPA), which provides effective and cost efficient multinational solutions to the Alliance, its Nations and Partners.
The BONUS round contains two sensor-fuzed warheads with advanced target-seeking sensors. Once deployed they independently seek, track and strike targets within an area of 32,000 square meters.
“This additional order shows the Army’s confidence in the BONUS system,” said Lena Gillström, managing director for BAE Systems Weapon Systems Sweden.
“This advanced technology facilitates striking two targets with one munition to increase combat efficiency and lethality on the battlefield.”
The BONUS munition has been developed and produced jointly by BAE Systems and France-based Nexter Munitions.
Work under this contract begins immediately with deliveries expected to start in 2021. Finland, France, Norway, Sweden and the United States are among the countries with BONUS in their arsenal.
Oh, look, more systems we desperately need but cant afford. Even if we did procure these fine bits of kit, we don’t have anything useful to fire them.
BV
What about the British army’s AS90?
The AS90 is in terrible state, its desperately due an update or more likely a replacement. Its 39 cal gun is outranged by most other systems and its availability rate is shocking. Be under no illusion, the Royal Artillery stopped prioritising indirect fire in support of troops in contact years ago, its now all about ISTAR.
BV
Would a redesign to 120mm allow Challenger 2 a long range accurate tank killing capability as a real upgrade to Hesh and out distance tank borne missiles. With Istar linkage and updated gunnery software. Heavy top armour upgrades would make it a very capable platform. it needs a more powerful engine and gear box as well. All available.
Challenger 2 has a great system to hit a static target from a static CR2, it just doesn’t work if the target moves. The problem is, tanks are a different beast, asking chally to do the job of AS90 is just too much, they are complimentary but opposite systems. Could you mount a 155mm turret on a chally? yes, it has been done, would it be any better than AS90? probably not.
BV
CR 2 really has 2 main systems Fin/Sabot, CR2 is brilliant at moving and hitting a visible and moving MBT. The second system is HESH, with HESH you can fire long range at an visible area target. I am not talking about making a dedicated artillery machine using CR2 but enhancing the current capability 120mm hesh to 120mm Bonus where a visible target to the CR2 could be engaged with the use of ISTAR and an enhanced vehicle mounted battlefield management system that can work with Bonus. Additionally able to act as weapons delivery platform for ISTAR assets or local… Read more »
So this is my area of expertise, which is odd for a 15 year old Chinese kid. The issue is, the L-30 rifled gun is getting replaced by a smoothbore that cant fire HESH (not 100% accurate), there are rounds for a smoothbore that can fire at a point target non line of sight but I cant think of anyone who has procured them. If the L-30 wasn’t getting replaced could we upgrade HESH to work like a Bonus system? Its possible, the internal volume of HESH is large due to its low velocity and its need to squash on… Read more »
Ref smooth bore replacement, maybe the turret will be changed, probably cheaper to buy 2nd hand Abrams. What I am suggesting might be a significant enhancement that would make retaining L30 worthwhile. If you can kill the the enemy tanks with your own before they can see you has to be a battle winner with a battlefield where only fully armoured tanks can survive due to the oppositions superiority in Artillery.
L-30 is dead, its FIN round is just not competitive anymore and it has no upgrade path due the gun design. It need an upgrade just so it can still kill enemy tanks. The upgrade is happening, its already going through trials. The challenger upgrade will be way more capable than an old Abrams, as it is its better than an M1A1.
It would be a great capability to have, could you not fire a similar fin stabilized system from a smoothbore?
BV