The Hawkeye light artillery system was presented to a wide audience for the first time at the annual exhibition of the Association of the US Army (AUSA) in October. In fact, it is a modern 105 mm howitzer with reduced recoil force. This gun was installed on the platform of a Mack military truck. The presented system has practically no competitors in terms of such indicators as tactical mobility, firepower, strategic deployability, command and control. Due to its low weight and reduced recoil, this weapon can be installed on wheeled, tracked, waterborne and even aircraft platforms.
The novelty was presented by the American company Mandus Group at the Mack Trucks stand, as the gun was mounted on the platform of the Mack military truck. The presented Hawkeye gun is a lightweight, modular, high-performance 105mm howitzer designed to be mounted on various types of combat platforms. Thanks to the use of the latest technology in its creation, this howitzer is able to set new standards for modern light artillery.
Currently, Hawkeye can be an excellent alternative for such weapons as 120-mm mortars, 106-mm recoilless guns or standard 105-mm artillery systems, thanks to such an indicator as the cost of hitting a target from the first shot. The light howitzer incorporates an innovative modular design. Due to its low recoil force and low mass, it can be installed on a wide range of military equipment, which means that such a system can be deployed on land, water and in the air in ways that were not available to the military.
The modular, lightweight and compact Hawkeye is equipped with soft recoil technology. This technology reduces stress and allows the use of lighter materials that are 50% lighter than standard recoil systems. Such a howitzer has a serious ergonomic advantage, while maintaining easy access to the breech rear of the gun at any guidance angles, which makes it easy to use the existing standard 105-mm NATO ammunition.
The digital automated control system and semi-fixed 105-mm ammunition allow for fast loading and minimal time before the first shot is fired. In addition, the light howitzer is placed on a fairly light transport platform, which provides fire in all directions. The howitzer is much less demanding in terms of the level of logistic support, compared to traditional 105-mm guns, due to the simplicity of its design, which also makes it possible to reduce the maintenance time and reduce the number of its crew.
Technology
The howitzer presented at the October US exhibition is a modern revival of a technology that was already approved by the American army in the 70s of the last century, but never went into mass production. The so-called reduced recoil is used to reduce the recoil force of the howitzer, by imparting a counter acceleration to the rolling back parts of the gun before direct ignition of the charge. Thanks to this technology, the recoil force can be reduced by 70%, which in turn leads to a reduction in the load on the carriage through the trunnions, thus significantly reducing the total weight of the howitzer.
At the very beginning of the recoil cycle, all the recoiling parts of the implement are in a position in the middle of the barrel length. In this position, they are held under the pressure of a locked recuperator filled with nitrogen. At the moment when the release handle is lowered (a shot occurs), the recuperator stopper is released and the mass of the rolling parts of the gun, including the barrel, begins to move forward. A special sensor monitors the speed and movement of these parts, and at the moment when they reach a certain speed, the charge is ignited.
The recoil energy that occurs when fired first stops and then forces the moving parts of the barrel and recoil devices to move in the opposite direction. As a result, the recoil energy is reduced by 70%. The rest of the energy is used to return the recoil devices and the barrel to their original position for the next shot cycle.
Moreover, such a system has a fairly large number of problems that are related to the safety of work. Charge initiation must be closely tied to the firing of the shot and the speed of the barrel. The installed speed sensor must be reliable and accurate. Even a 40 ms interval between the sensor's response and the ignition of the charge can result in unacceptable range dispersion. In this case, if the charge is not initiated (in the event of a misfire), the rollback system should be able to stop the movement of the recoil devices and the barrel without leaving the installation from the firing position. And in the case of a protracted shot, when the shot occurs in a fully "deflated" position of the barrel, the rollback system must be able to cope with full recoil.
Lightweight 105mm Hawkeye Howitzer
Mandus with its new 105-mm light howitzer for a long time avoided promoting similar guns in the American market, preferring to position its brainchild in the niche of 120-mm self-propelled mortars, which have firmly won their place on the international market. Typical examples of such mortars are manufactured by GDLS Stryker Mortar Carrier, International Golden Group Agrab, KADDB VM3.
The Hawkeye howitzer, in contrast to mortars, offers great opportunities for the minimum and maximum firing range, combining the ability to fire from closed positions at a distance of up to 11, 5 km and the ability to fire direct fire at close targets (the minimum firing range of the howitzer is limited only by the distance required for cocking the projectile fuse). Among other things, the howitzer has a higher reaction speed due to the higher projectile speed. Of course, 105-mm shells contain less explosive than 120-mm mines, but with the use of modern thin-walled fragmentation ammunition, this disadvantage can be compensated for. Compared to conventional howitzers, the Hawkeye has a higher rate of fire.
The Hawkeye light howitzer uses a standard 105 mm M102 barrel and an M137A1 swinging part with a barrel length of 26.6 caliber, while according to the developer's information, the barrel length can be increased at the request of the customer. The estimated firing range of the standard M67 fragmentation ammunition is 11.5 km, and the M927 active-reactive ammunition with the same charge is 16.7 km.
Initially, it was planned to install the howitzer on the chassis of the Renault Sherpa 4x4 vehicle, thereby creating the very light and highly mobile artillery system designed for operations on the battlefield. However, in the end, the designers stopped their choice on the Mack military truck. The estimated weight of the howitzer, including the wheeled carriage and the towing device, the swinging part, the drives is a little less than a ton (998 kg). In addition, the company is developing a lightweight version of the howitzer for use on gunship aircraft. Such a howitzer has a front axle arrangement, does not have a gun carriage and can be installed on an airborne installation of an aircraft. The length of any version of the howitzer is 3.3 meters, the width is 0.96 meters, and the height when towing behind the vehicle is 0.99 meters.
For fire control Hawkeye can be equipped with both a telescopic sight and an electronic one, or a combination of both. The prototype presented at the exhibition is equipped with the Selex Galileo LINAPS artillery positioning system, which includes an integrated GPS receiver, a FIN3110 laser inertial gyroscope, which are also used on the L118 guns of the British army. In addition to the simple indicator of fire from closed positions used in LINAPS, the light howitzer is equipped with a telescopic sight that allows direct fire. This sight is equipped with a computerized aiming mark imposed by a ballistic computer.
In accordance with the implemented concept, the opening of the shutter and loading of the Hawkeye light howitzer is carried out entirely in manual mode, but the developers are already considering the possibility of creating a fully automatic "digital" version, equipped with automatic drives and loading. At the same time, the drives for horizontal and vertical guidance are digitally controlled, which makes it possible to fully stabilize the weapon on the platform - up to the possibility of firing while in motion. The Company also says it can develop a 155mm Hawkeye if the need arises. Moreover, even the characteristics of the system in its current state provide superiority over all existing self-propelled mortars.
Mandus Group believes in the potential of their offspring and in the further development possibilities of their system. The benefits of it can be even more fully realized when used with more powerful weapons, primarily in ballistics. For example, with the light cannon L118, the barrel length of which is 37 calibers, and the maximum firing range is 17, 2 km, or with the 105-mm / 57 Denel LEO howitzer, which, using active-reactive ammunition, can hit targets at a distance of 30 km.
