OTO Melara and Diehl Defence demonstrated the performances of their new VULCANO Precision Guided Munition family during another live firing campaign.
The agreement on large calibre conventional and guided ammunition for Land and Maritime applications was signed during Eurosatory 2012.
The firings took place at Alkantpan Proving Ground, South Africa, in May 2014, using a PzH2000 howitzer.
The fired Vulcano rounds were in their production configuration and achieved the expected results both in the guided (GPS & SAL) and unguided version.
The firings at different ranges proved the good performances of GPS and SAL guidance.
The maximum range was limited to slightly over 50 km for the firing range safety template limitation for the range.
It is the first time that a PzH2000 has fired an unguided ballistic round at such extended ranges whereas the guided round, if fired at the same elevation, would have achieved ranges of over 80 km with undiminished precision.
As part of this Vulcano firing campaign, tests were conducted with IR (InfraRed) guidance, demonstrating the capability of target discrimination and tracking.
However, IR terminal guidance will only apply to the Vulcano 127mm naval version.
The “Plug and Play” of different sensors for terminal guidance was demonstrated with the same basic inertial measurement unit (IMU)/GPS mid-course guidance.
They are identical for both 155 mm and 127 mm Vulcano ammunition.
The firing tests were followed by Italian and German MOD representatives that expressed their great satisfaction for the trial results, achieved.
The Vulcano program is proceeding fast towards completion allowing low rate initial production in the near future with full qualification expected to start by year end, qualification to be achieved in 2015 followed by production in 2016.
Italy and Germany, already customers for the Vulcano 127mm naval shell, are seen as potential customers for the 155mm version.
The firings took place at Alkantpan Proving Ground, South Africa, in May 2014, using a PzH2000 howitzer.??
