Tests and more tests for BAE's new cannon

Three towering jackhammers shook workers to the core as they gyrated BAE Systems' new 20-ton cannon through its 10,000th mile of "ruggedization" testing last week inside the company's Armament Systems plant in Fridley.

The first-of-its-kind vibration table has "shaken the snot out" of BAE's revolutionary Non-Line-of-Sight cannon (NLOS) prototype since October, in a test meant to simulate the rigors of battle, said BAE principal project engineer Deepak Bazaz.

Four years of engineering, data collection and refinement have led some 300 BAE workers in Fridley to this point -- final tests for every ounce of the massive machine with simulators that were designed and built on site.

Come June 14, the first cannon prototype will be lifted out of its concrete vibration room, mated with its vehicle chassis and rolled out of the factory and to the Army, which intends to use it to phase out traditional howitzers. Other prototypes will get turned over to the Army before the end of the year.

Combined, BAE's hefty robotic cannon/vehicle will weigh 27 tons, self-load, target and fire 100-pound shells with the mere press of a button by soldiers inside an armored cab. That's a vast improvement over the manual hoisting of shells soldiers must do today while exposing themselves to potential enemy fire. If all goes well, the NLOS beast will win BAE a $1 billion contract, prevent soldier death and injury and automate the grueling, antiquated shell-loading process that's changed little in 100 years.

But first, more tests

Just days ago, a handful of engineers dashed from one end of BAE's enormous plant, past platform after platform armed with 20-foot gun barrels to get to the far end of the factory, where the jackhammers were going at it.

A pit 20 feet deep had to be dug into the earth below the plant and filled with concrete to ensure a sturdy enough area for BAE's earthquake-like tests, said spokesman Ryan May.

As Bazaz approached the concrete-encased simulator, a massive overhead ceiling-crane stalked him from above, alternately stealing and restoring daylight to the equipment and workers 60 feet below. With chains dangling, the yellow crane floated down the factory, hoisted the tank-sized cannon off the vibrating table and into a nearby holster that stretched to the rafters.

A hydraulic lift holding a 2,860-pound hammer smashed the cannon nose again and again, simulating the constant blasts and recoils the cannon would endure in combat.

Cannon faces rigors of battle

"We call it the gun banger, Bazaz said. "It takes turns with the vibration table. We are really taking the vehicle through its life."

In Yuma, Ariz., this week, Army officers conducted tests of their own on a sister prototype, firing the 1,700th round half a mile downwind and measuring velocity, distance and accuracy.

"This enables us to pinpoint and correct any reliability issues on site and supply design changes to the prototypes that will be rolled out this year, so that soldiers will not experience reliability problems during tests in the field," said Jim Unterseher, BAE's vice president of Army Systems.

All that banging and rumbling and firing has illuminated some problems. For example, the plastic rollers inside the automated magazine loader had to be replaced with something sturdier, Bazaz said.

The canon's reliability requirements are 10 times tougher than for vehicles in combat today. That's one reason BAE is hiring additional welders, tool operators and precision machinists this year.

The NLOS Cannon Vehicle, which cost BAE, Boeing and General Dynamics about $897 million to develop, will be the first of eight manned combat vehicles to join the Army's Future Combat System, a fully networked brigade that is scheduled to be on the battlefield in 2010.

The Army will take BAE's automated fire power and integrate it with hybrid electric, power generation and traction drive systems. "This is the first time we'll bring all those together in a real platform and start doing hard testing," McVay said.