By Santa Bárbara*

75 km Range!

Denel shatters artillery records

In a continuing drive to improve its acknowledged lead in tubed artillery systems, Denel managed to fire to 75 kilometres last week, shattering all previous artillery records.

This range improvement was achieved on 11 April 2006 with the latest G6-52L, Denel's extended range version of its renowned G6 self-propelled artillery system. It fired V-LAP projectiles which use both base-bleed and rocket-assist technology to extend the range.

The ammunition was conditioned at 50 degrees C as part of a safety qualification for an upcoming manned user trial. The gun fired at an elevation of 1 000 metres above sea level at the Alkantpan firing range near Prieska in the Northern Cape Province of South Africa.

What makes this achievement more remarkable is the excellent consistency achieved, with a probable error of only 0.38% of range fired.

"We'll be able to further improve on this accuracy in future by applying range correcting fuze technology on which Denel has started to work," explained Mr Bastiaan Verhoek, Executive Manager at DLS Lyttelton, a Denel company in Pretoria.

Artillery systems in many parts of the world, such as within NATO, are specified to fire shorter ranges, mainly in the interest of standarization. "For these requirements we do supply guns and ammunition systems too, but because we use the same design technologies, Denel can do so with much moreconfidence and greater margins of safety," he added.

"With these latest firing trials, Denel showed that it remained the world leader in development of long range artillery ballistic systems," Verhoek concluded.

Technical Terms Base Bleed - to reduce the aerodinamic drag, is added a depot of propellant that is burned during the projectile flight. Around 20 to 30 % of firing range is obtained. Calibres - É the guns barrel lenght splited by internal diameter. Thus the case is 8.060mm/155mm = 52 calibers. M109A3 AP, 155mm, has 39 calibers, and firing range 23.5km. Propellant charge is only effective on projectile when the it is in the tube (internal ballistic). That the reason for extend the lennght the gun barrel. Technical challenge are great, due the potential failure, bend and rupture. Is necessary that the guns barrels achieve a very high quality standard on metallurgical and machining processes. Santa Barbara - Patroness Artillery Arm