Rheinmetall, Northrop Grumman set up partnership to develop precision artillery munitions

The partnership will focus on developing an enhanced-range 155mm artillery round with a precision guidance kit, as well as a 155mm projectile with an improved propulsion system

Rheinmetall, Northrop Grumman set up partnership to develop precision artillery munitions

Photo: Denel Land Systems

Germany's Rheinmetall announced Monday that it formalized an agreement with American company Northrop Grumman to cooperate in the field of precision-guided enhanced range artillery ammunition. Rheinmetall’s South African subsidiary Rheinmetall Denel Munition and Northrop Grumman signed a 10-year strategic partnership agreement to this effect in February. During this period, the two companies plan to cooperate in order to offer forward-looking ammunition technology to the international market, including the United States, to support future artillery operations.

According to the company, the partnership will focus, above all, on manufacturing an enhanced range 155mm artillery round fitted with an integrated M1156 precision guidance kit (PGK), as well as on developing a new 155mm projectile with an improved integrated propulsion system. In service with a number of armed forces, the M1156 PGK is an inexpensive, immediately available means of enhancing the accuracy of existing types of artillery ammunition. In combination with Rheinmetall’s V-LAP projectile, which currently achieves the longest maximum range of any conventional artillery projectile, the M1156 PGK results in a swiftly available solution, proven in numerous combat operations, for long-range precision-guided munitions, Rheinmetall said.

The company claims that the armed forces of more than twelve nations now use enhanced range Rheinmetall artillery ammunition from South Africa. Rheinmetall and Northrop Grumman conducted testing of the V-LAP projectile variants and PGK in South Africa early in 2021, and intend to demonstrate them later at the US Army proving ground in Yuma, Arizona.