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Lawton Constitution: Next-Generation Paladin Makes Debut At Elgin Plant

April 9, 2015
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Lawton Constitution - Mitch Meador

ELGIN — The audience waited expectantly as the tracks of Serial No. 003 M109A7 howitzer turned slowly at first, then faster as it rolled out onto an open stretch of concrete.

The three-member crew inside spun the nextgeneration Paladin around 360 degrees and elevated the tube as onlookers recorded videos of its performance on their phones.

Adam Zarfoss, director of artillery and Bradley programs for BAE Systems, welcomed guests to the anxiously awaited delivery of the first M109A7 from its Elgin facility on Thursday.

“The PIM team has put forth an extraordinary effort over the past several years to get us to the point we’re at,” Zarfoss said, adding that “this is only the first of many deliveries. The team has a long, long way to go. But they have come together in an extremely positive, efficient and cooperative fashion, and we have been honored to be part of it.”

BAE Systems has come a long way since the Jan. 10, 2014, groundbreaking. Zarfoss said production lines have been running at Anniston Army Depot, Ala., and the BAE Systems facility in York, Pa., for almost a year now, and more vehicles are under way.

“I think we’ve got 11 or 12 howitzers in production at this point,” said Zarfoss, noting that No. 4 completed its test firing at Fort Sill on Wednesday. Zarfoss said officials hope this is the start of a long and continuous production of the M109A7 “and more importantly, the fielding of this important capability to our soldiers. This isn’t about building systems. It’s about providing combat power to our nation’s army.” U.S. Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., probably said it best:

“The appropriate theme song for this event should probably be the old song, ‘The Long and Winding Road,’ because it’s certainly been a very long road for all of us.”

Colepraised U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., by saying, “Nobody can have a better battle buddy than Jim Inhofe when it comes to not only thinking about our community and thinking about the military each and every soldier at a time, but thinking about how critical that mission is for our country. He’s dedicated his life to politically making sure that when we do ask men and women in uniform to go do tough things, that they’ve got everything this country could possibly give them to make sure that they succeed and come home safely.”

Inhofe was unable to attend, but Zarhoff said he was celebrating with them in spirit.

Cole also thanked the U.S. Army for sticking with the development of the new system.

Precision targeting

“We’ve recently had tremendous testimony from (Army Chief of Staff) Gen. (Raymond) Odierno and (Secretary of the Army) John McHugh about how important this project is and what it would mean for our soldiers and the ability now to pinpoint individual rounds in ways that were unthinkable a decade ago,” the congressman said.

Cole thanked BAE Systems for never losing faith along the way and for its commitment to the Elgin community and its industrial park.

“Nobody could have better partners,” he said of BAE Systems and the Army.

Cole also lauded Elgin Mayor Larry Thoma: “Nobody has walked every step of the way like the mayor. In fact he’s gone through two or three congressmen and senators along the way. The only public official who’s been here each and every time is the mayor, and he never lost faith.”

Brig. Gen. David Bassett, the Army’s program executive officer for ground combat systems, said he would feel safe inside the new howitzer: “I would go to war in this vehicle tomorrow. We think it gives our soldiers a decisive edge.”

“It’s a beautiful howitzer … It’s not a concept vehicle. It’s not a prototype. It’s a production howitzer made right here in Oklahoma as well as in locations like Anniston, Ala., and York, Pa.,” Bassett said.

Bassett said his father was commissioned into the Field Artillery Corps in 1963, the same year that the M109 howitzer was introduced into the force.

“This howitzer is a promise we’re keeping to our field artillery soldiers, and it’s a promise that’s been made over a number of decades,” he said.

On budget, on schedule

Bassett said the program is on budget and on schedule, and in two years the first Army unit will be equipped with the PIM howitzer system and its companion vehicle, the M992A3 Carrier, Ammunition, Tracked (CAT).

Afterward, Bassett said this howitzer gives troops a vehicle that’s ahead of where industry will take the other vehicles in the armored brigade combat teams.

“You’re talking about a vehicle now that’s more reliable, that’s got more power, that’s got more protection, that’s going to get them to the battlefield and get them home safely, and allow them to deliver indirect fires that give us a decisive edge on the battlefield,” Bassett said.

“We really think this is a tremendous step forward,” he added.

“It’s great to be back here in Oklahoma for what is an absolutely outstanding day and a celebration of incredibly hard work of the PIM team here and the hundreds of people who have been supportive of this program over the years,” said Erwin Bieber, president of platforms and services for BAE Systems.

Bieber, who was here for the groundbreaking, said he’s had a tremendous amount of pleasure watching the program move forward incrementally over the past 2½ years.

Logistical benefits

Bieber said the high degree of commonality between the platform on which the PIM is built and that of the Bradley Fighting Vehicle will provide cost savings, efficiency, logistical benefits, training benefits “and that’s going to be a significant benefit to the Army in savings going forward.”

Heidi Shyu, assistant secretary of the Army for acquisition, logistics and technology and also Army acquisition executive, took a day off from the Pentagon for the ceremony.

“It’s well worth it. I’m happy to be here,” she said, drawing laughs when she joked that “we’ve gone through 2½ years of this, fighting this long and winding road that’s actually laced with IEDs.”

Utility through 2050

She congratulated BAE Systems for meeting the milestone in a timely and efficient manner. She also read off a list of innovations that make PIM “a revolutionary next-generation system” that will provide indirect fires for armor and mechanized infantry divisions through the year 2050.

“Capability for this platform operates on the cutting edge of emerging technology, offering significant overmatch against our adversaries,” she said.

PIM is in low-rate initial production for now, but Shyu said afterwards she will be pushing for full-rate production in about two years, once the Army completes its operational testing and evaluation.

No one knows the travails of the long and winding road better than Mark Signorelli, BAE Systems’ vice president and general manager for combat vehicles. He started working on the Elgin Industrial Park in 1998 and has weathered the cancellation of Crusader and the Non-Line of Sight Cannon. They weren’t a complete loss, as technology developed for those systems has been recaptured in the M109A7.

“Things like the electric drives, the high-voltage power system come from that program, upgraded engines come from the Bradley program, and a lot of the armor technology that’s on this vehicle to protect the soldiers comes from Crusader, NLOS Cannon and other programs,” Signorelli said.

“This really is a sort of integration of technologies from across the Army’s investment portfolio into a new vehicle,” he said.

Online:The Lawton Constitution