Ironduke

Excellent pictures, Colonel.

Very interesting weapon, to say the least.

That type of system clearly has an enormous advantage over towed artillery.

I suppose the Caesar can be compared to the M109 kind of like the Stryker can be compared to M113. Am I correct in my analogy?

Also, is the Caesar a French weapon?

Officer of Engineers

I've edit the post to include the specs.

There are two issues I am extremely uncomfortable with.

1) Protection. Towed systems rely on engrs and earthworks. SPH have armour.

2) Sustained fire. Towed have their own trucks (enough said here) and SPH is have the LOG train to keep up with it. This thing is supposed to be air insert (ie Stryker BCT), meaning come as you are (ie 18 rounds).

The Caesar is from Giat Industry, France.

I would say the Caesar is comparable to the M109 as the Stryker is to the Bradley.

__________________
Chimo

Officer of Engineers

And I'll say it before M21 does

- It's not tracked.

Officer of Engineers

I just remembered, Maj Holthus's dislike of this weapon is that you can't level it and use it as a direct fire weapon. Gunners are NOT supposed to use howitzers this way but **** happens.

Anon

The 82d is going to drop these out of planes???

Officer of Engineers

Don't think it's meant for any of the jump div. They're reliant on mortars (82 to 120mm) for their fire support. Air Assualt has a 105mm requirement (LG-105) that can be helo inserted. Chinooks would be the trucks delivering the loads.

18th Guns are looking at 3x4 guns bn for the IBCT and a 3x6 guns bn for a Marine Arty Regt.

Essentially a C-17 can deliver a single battery (4 Caesars) though I imagine that the gunners would want to hitch a trailer with extra ammo to the thing, reducing the load.

One thing for sure, it doesn't even come close to the M109 in effectiveness ... and they cancelled the Crusader.

Anon

Crusader was really a HUGE improvement over the Paladin.

Damned morons.

Praxus

We just gotta hope the NLOS Cannon isn't a POS.

What do you think was the most important thing about the Crusader, the Increased Range, Increased rate of fire, etc... ?

Anon

Set up time, rate of fire, , and shift to fire time, in that order.

All just huge improvements over current US systems.

Range is nice, but not as important as the things listed above. Even still, Crusader was much longer ranged than the Paladin too.

It should be in service, now...and already seeing action.

Pisses me off.

Praxus

Thank God...

http://www.nationaldefensemagazine.o...le.cfm?Id=1283

Hopefully once they upgrade all the vehicles they will relise that a new family of armored cars is not nessecary.

Officer of Engineers

Not a chance. These are upgrades, not additional units. The Strykers are already tasked and there's no other vehicles to replace them as of now.

Officer of Engineers

The NLOS-C as an anarexic Crusader.

Attached Images

nlos-c.jpg (49.3 KB, 514 views)

Blademaster

How does it compare to the Crusader? Crusader weighs at least over 80 tons including the ammo train. How much does it weigh?

What are its firing capabilities in terms of rate of fire, range, time of acquisition, cooling time, reload time, and accuracy?

Officer of Engineers

I'll have to ask RL01 for that info.

Praxus

The Crusader weighed around 50 tons(so about 100 tons included "ammo" crusader")and it was going to use the same new engine that the M1 Abrams was going to get(LV-100), however they deamed tht the feul consumption and actually getting it to the fight was to much of a logistical burden.

The Crusader could carry 16 more rounds(about 33% more then NLOS-C).