Overview
- The Army took delivery of its first Hanwha-built Mobile Tactical Cannon prototype and unveiled the official designation XM1776 at the AUSA conference on Monday.
- The service awarded Hanwha an Other Transaction Authority prototyping deal worth up to about $263 million for as many as 18 systems and has ordered nine prototypes so far with options for nine more.
- Hanwha is building a U.S. integration and test site in Opelika, Alabama, to onshore final assembly and to meet supplier engagement goals for a domestic artillery industrial base.
- Hanwha and Army officials say the XM1776 offers greater range, higher rates of fire, an autoloader and larger onboard magazine compared with the M777, but those performance claims must be validated through upcoming operational experiments.
- Next steps include soldier testing under realistic combat conditions, parallel competitions for a tracked variant and a resupply vehicle, and an Army aim to field a ready version to priority brigades by 2031.