Overview
- The Army has taken delivery of a Hanwha-built Mobile Tactical Cannon prototype and publicly displayed it as the service prepares testing and soldier experimentation.
- The system was procured under a four-year Other Transaction Authority prototyping contract that covers accelerated delivery of six prototypes and up to 18 systems in total for as much as about $263 million.
- The Mobile Tactical Cannon is derived from Hanwha’s mature K9 family and uses a 52-caliber 155mm gun that company and reporting figures place well beyond the M777’s baseline range of under 24 km and its Excalibur-extended range of about 40 km.
- The contract requires onshoring of production within two years and Hanwha is building an integration and test site in Opelika, Alabama; the Army has also issued a separate solicitation for a tracked variant of the cannon.
- Next steps include operational experiments, soldier feedback, and integration with the Army’s 155mm Artillery Propulsion Modernization work to pursue new propellants and charges, with initial fielding planned for Stryker brigades and a goal of a ready configuration by 2031.