US Secretary of the Army Mark Esper said that his department was developing a special ultra-long-range artillery gun, capable of firing at a distance of 1 thousand nautical miles (1.8 thousand km). This American official told reporters on January 24. Speaking about the purpose of creating such weapons, he turned to examples from military history.

“Why did a spear appear? Because the other person had a sword. A spear provides distance. Why did the sling appear? Because the spear did not allow the use of the sword with its distance of defeat. During the confrontation you always want to be able to strike, without receiving a response. That is what can provide us with cannon artillery of increased range, this is a good example in the case of us and the Russians, ”said Esper.

In addition, he said, a new weapon could be useful for a possible struggle with another geopolitical opponent of the United States. The head of the department responsible for preparing and equipping the Ground Forces told how a new weapon could be used to counter China.

“Suppose the situation develops that the US Navy will find it impossible to enter the South China Sea due to Chinese warships or for some other reason,” said Esper at a meeting with the press. “Then, taking a fixed position, we will be able to hit enemy targets, including sea targets, from a long distance, defend ourselves and, if necessary, ensure the advancement of our naval forces or marines.”

As military expert Mikhail Khodaryonok noted in an interview with RT, despite the fact that a number of previous Pentagon projects for the creation of long-range guns, for example, for Zumwalt-class destroyers, ended unsuccessfully, the new plans indicate the determination of the US Department of Defense to make progress in this area.

“Such research and development work is really carried out in the United States. If they get such a gun, then its fantastic range can translate the armed struggle into a completely new plane, ”noted Hodaryonok.

In turn, the expert of the Bureau of military-political analysis, Dmitry Zadorozhny, doubts that the project of the super-long-range weapon will be implemented in the near future.

  • US Secretary of State Mark Esper
  • AFP
  • © CHIP SOMODEVILLA / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA

“It seems to me that Americans live in Hollywood thinking,” says Zadorozhny. “Imagine a huge railgun-type structure that shoots railroad cars for 1 thousand miles. Sadly, however, such a picture is fixed in the heads of people who are directly related to military construction. ”

From "Kaiser" to Trump

The development of a new long-range gun, called the Strategic Long Range Cannon (strategic long-range gun. - RT ), the United States announced in September. Its creation, as well as developments in the field of hypersound, was named by one of its priorities the head of the US Army's Advanced Arms Command, General John Murray, two months before.

Earlier, speaking about the tasks of this structure, Mark Esper noted that it is necessary to repel threats emanating from Russia and the PRC.

The Pentagon does not disclose any details regarding the appearance of the new weapon or the shells manufactured for it. However, according to American experts, to achieve a range of 1 thousand nautical miles you will need not ordinary projectiles, but active-reactive, that is, equipped with a rocket-type engine.

Another way to increase the range - lengthening the barrel, in which the projectile acceleration takes place - has many precedents in military history. Thus, the long-range cannon Kaiser Wilhelm's Trumpet, which was used by Germany during the First World War, had a 28-meter-long barrel in Paris.

Do the German super heavy gun "Dora", which was used to bombard Sevastopol in the Great Patriotic War, like its "fellow" "Tolstoy Gustav"? the barrel was already 36 meters. However, the heavy super guns of the Third Reich did not demonstrate high efficiency.

  • Adolf Hitler examines Tolstoy Gustav
  • © Wikimedia Commons

In the 1960s, the United States and Canada worked on the HARP (High Altitude Research Project - High Rise Research Project - RT ) project. Its military component envisaged the creation of special light-gas guns, which could take light satellites into near-earth orbit. Their maximum length reached 41 m, and the projectile reached a height of 180 km. However, the main task - the launch of a satellite into orbit - was never achieved.

Already in the 1980s, one of the participants in these developments, Canadian engineer Gerald Bull, was working on the Babylon project commissioned by Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. His goal was to create ultra-long guns. There is no exact information on this project, although in publications on this topic one can find references to the fact that Bull’s guns theoretically had to shoot at a distance of up to 1 thousand km, shoot down satellites or carry projectiles weighing up to 2 tons.

However, Saddam Hussein’s dream did not come true - on March 22, 1990, Gerald Bull was shot dead in Brussels. The killer of a Canadian engineer was never found.

Faster, higher, cheaper

As Colonel John Rafferty, head of the Inter-Specific Research Group of High-Precision Long-Range Systems at the US Defense Department, noted in September last year in an interview with the Breaking Defense portal, an ultra-long gun is needed for strikes where the use of expensive weapons such as hypersonic systems does not make sense.

  • Colonel John Rafferty
  • © Joe Lacdan / US Army

Also, according to him, the new gun will be significantly smaller than Gerald Bull’s guns, but it will still exceed the dimensions that are in service with the American army.

According to Hodarenk, if the United States develops a supergun, its main advantage will be the low cost of projectiles, which will have a small reflective surface, which can be a problem for the enemy’s air defenses. At the same time, the weapon itself must be sufficiently mobile, well protected from enemy attacks, and quick-fire.

“Apparently, it is supposed to be a fire attack, which will be quite difficult to repel,” Hodaryonok suggested. “In general, the task is to achieve the cheapest possible shot in order to fight with high-precision ammunition in conflicts with the use of conventional weapons.”

According to John Rafferty, the purpose of his group’s work is the creation of weapons necessary to combat A2AD facilities (the American military term, which stands for anti-access and area denial, restriction and prohibition of access and maneuver. - RT ) - air defense complexes, coastal defense , electronic warfare and artillery reconnaissance, which requires a wider set of tools than the strategic long-range gun.

Tactical superiority

In addition to the "strategic cannon" projects, the American command is puzzled by the increase in the range of tactical weapons. Currently, the firing range of American howitzers does not exceed 35 km. For comparison, the declared range of the Russian self-propelled howitzer 2S35 "Coalition-SV" is 80 km.

In October 2018, Mark Esper recognized that Russian cannon artillery surpasses American counterparts.

“They developed weapons that, in range, are superior to our tactical receiver artillery,” he noted in an interview with Defense One.

In order to level this superiority, the prospective ERCA program (extended-range barrel artillery. - RT ) has been implemented since 2015. To achieve the goal, two methods are used: an increase in the length of the barrel and the development of new active-missiles.

So, in September last year, successful tests of the modified M777 155 howitzer were held at the Yuma test site in Arizona. If its previous version beat 18 miles (29 km), then the new M-777ER, with the trunk length increased by 1.8 meters, doubled the range of fire.

  • M777A2 Alpha Battery
  • © Lance Cpl. Jose D. Lujano / marforpac.marines.mil

In August 2018, the US Army announced work on a new active-projectile - XM1113, the production of which is planned to begin in 2022. Its use will also increase the firing range of enemy positions.

As General John Murray noted, speaking in the US Congress last September, his command faces the task of doubling the firing range of the M126 Paladin self-propelled howitzer. Now its 155-mm gun is capable of hitting a distance of 22 km (30 km with an active-projectile projectile).

As Hodaryonok notes, an increase in the range of a gun shot is a difficult technical task, and even the earth rotation factor must be taken into account, but achieving this goal provides a weighty advantage in battle.

According to experts, the most important means of deterring the United States from the use of any type of weapons against Russia, including strategic ultra-long-range weapons, is the Russian nuclear arsenal, which is replenished with the latest means of delivery.

At the same time, according to Zadorozhny, an increase in the range of tactical artillery can be very dangerous if it is used in local conflicts.

“Therefore, it is necessary to look at these works and solve the tasks of counteraction,” noted Zadorozhny. “But our military industry is coping with this, so there’s nothing to fear.”