The U.S. Army Watervliet Arsenal received a $7.8 million contract to supply 19 M776 155mm cannons to the Australian Army through BAE Systems as part of the U.S. State Department's Foreign Military Sales program. The cannons will add over 16,000 hours of work and production will be completed between fall 2013 and spring 2014. This contract is a follow-up order after Watervliet previously manufactured parts for M777 howitzers for Australia in 2011. The lightweight M777 howitzer is replacing Australia's heavier M198 system.

1. U.S. ARMY WATERVLIET ARSENAL
NEWS RELEASE
John B. Snyder
Public Affairs Officer
U.S. Army Watervliet Arsenal
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Building 10, Room 102
Watervliet, NY 12189
Nov. 29, 2012 (518) 266-5055
Arsenal receives $7.8 million contract to supply
Australian Army with new lightweight cannons
WATERVLIET ARSENAL, N.Y. -- The Arsenal announced today that it received a $7.8 million
contract to provide the Australian Army, via BAE Systems, with 19 M776 155mm cannons as part
of the U.S. State Department’s Foreign Military Sales program.
“This multimillion dollar order will add to our current workload more than 16,000 hours of direct
labor,” said Jake Peart, the Arsenal’s chief of Production Control & Program Management. “We
will begin shipping in the fall of 2013 and we will complete our production in the spring of 2014.”
Hugh McNamara, the Arsenal’s program manager for the 155mm cannon, said that this is a follow-
on order for the Australian Army as the Arsenal had previously worked with BAE Systems to
manufacture 35 tubes and subassemblies for the M777A2 howitzer in 2011.
The M777 howitzer, which was fielded in the U.S. military in 2003, is replacing the much heavier
M198 155mm towed howitzer system currently in use by the Royal Australian Artillery, McNamara
said.
“This order will require a wide variety of specialized machining skills because the order is for the
complete cannon system, which includes such parts as the 155mm barrel, breech block, breech ring,
and muzzle break,” McNamara added.
This is the second multi-million dollar contract awarded to the Arsenal in the two months. In
October, the Arsenal received a $4.2 million contract for a new lightweight 60mm mortar baseplate
for the U.S. Army.
According to BAE Systems:
The revolutionary M777, weighing in at less than 4200kg (about 9259 pounds) is the world’s first
artillery weapon to make widespread use of titanium and aluminum alloys, resulting in a howitzer
which is half the weight of conventional 155mm systems.
-more-

2. The M777 can fire the “smart” Excalibur round, co-developed by Global Combat Systems up
to 40 km (25 miles) accurately enough to target individual rooms within a building, reducing the
chance of innocent casualties and allowing supporting fire to be brought down much closer to
friendly troops.
It can hurl a standard 43.5 kg shell almost 30 km (21 miles) at 2.5 times the speed of sound. The
projectile takes just over a minute to fly this distance and reaches a maximum height of 12km. The
shell reaches its maximum speed of 2900 kph (1800 mph) by the time it exits the muzzle of the gun.
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Photo and cutline:
The Watervliet Arsenal received an order to manufacture 19 155mm cannons as part of the M777
155mm Lightweight Howitzer system being purchased by the Australian Army. Soldiers from the
82nd Airborne Division in the Konar Province, Afghanistan in August 2011 are firing a U.S. M777
howitzer. Photo by Spc. Evan D. Marcy_55th Signal.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/69610950@N03/8229675395/in/photostream