From: imbibe@mindspring.com   
      
   The Old-School Artillery Shell Is Becoming High Tech   
   By Alistair MacDonald, Nov. 22, 2023, WSJ   
   RAUFOSS, Norway—At a factory in rural Norway, engineers are perfecting an   
   artillery shell they say will be able to travel many times farther than the   
   traditional ammunition currently pounding the battlefield in Ukraine.   
      
   The work is part of a broader trend among arms companies to increase the   
   range, precision and lethality of artillery shells that have remained largely   
   unchanged for decades.   
      
   The technological advances, giving some shells capabilities similar to   
   missiles but with a lower cost and quicker production time, promise a dramatic   
   change for artillery as it plays its biggest role since the Vietnam War.   
      
   Some modern shells—including those guided to targets using satellite   
   navigation and others propelled by mini-rocket engines—have already been   
   deployed in Ukraine and Israel. The next frontier for arms manufacturers,   
   including BAE Systems and General    
   Dynamics, is making shells that travel farther while also speeding up   
   production to replace diminishing inventories.    
      
   Norway-based Nammo, in partnership with Boeing, is testing shells in Raufoss   
   that use so-called ramjet engines that it says will eventually be able to   
   travel up to about 90 miles—more than the distance from Philadelphia to New   
   York. Standard-barreled    
   howitzers have a range of around 15 miles with a conventional round, with   
   longer-range cannons reaching just over 30 miles.   
      
   “This is a game changer,” said Øyvind Lien, program director for advanced   
   tactical propulsion at Nammo. “You are putting a missile into a gun,” he   
   said, amid the noise of grinding metal on the factory floor.    
      
   The company’s ramjet technology works by allowing air to enter through the   
   front of the shell at high speed. The air is compressed and oxidizes the   
   rocket fuel, allowing it to burn. Using outside air means ramjet shells   
   don’t need to have oxidizer as    
   part of their propellant, meaning they can cram in more fuel.   
      
   Nammo and Boeing said a test in Arizona last month set a new distance record,   
   without disclosing how far the shell was fired.   
      
   Nammo has been working on ramjet shells since 2018, and the project won’t be   
   ready for serial production for another three years, Lien said. The company   
   has already tested the engine some 400 times while fixed statically in a   
   workshop, and a further 50    
   times out of an artillery gun.   
      
   One challenge of the push is ensuring that any new components inside the shell   
   can withstand the extreme force that comes from being fired out of a gun, said   
   Camilla Kirkemo Alm, a senior development engineer at Nammo.   
      
   BAE Systems is also working on new shells that it says have set distance   
   records, partly thanks to being smaller.   
      
   Europe’s largest defense company is using shells that are around half the   
   size of the usual 155-millimeter caliber that is used by standard Western   
   howitzers. To fire the new shell out of standard barrels, BAE has encased it   
   with a light metal sheath    
   that falls off as soon as the projectile leaves the gun. Typically, the   
   smaller a shell, the further it will travel.   
      
   “Traditionally, if you wanted the shell to fire further you would just   
   extend the barrel or increase the propellant, and armies have not really   
   switched away from the same basic projectile design used since the end of   
   WWII,” said Jim Miller, vice    
   president of business development at BAE’s combat mission systems business.   
      
   Miller, a former U.S. artillery officer, said BAE’s goal is to double the   
   range of one type of longer-barreled artillery gun, known as a 52-caliber gun.   
   Last year the company fired a version of its new shell around 68 miles from   
   one of these barrels    
   and is working on extending its range even further.   
      
   Firing longer distances has become particularly important in Ukraine. The   
   widespread use of drones means it is easy to spot artillery and then target   
   it. The further away a gun can be, the more likely it will be out of the range   
   of drones and counterfire.   
       
      
   “Range is becoming critical for simple survival,” Miller said.   
      
   Munitions makers are also working to modernize shells in other ways.    
      
   Nammo is developing shells fired by tanks where the operator can decide on the   
   type of effect. For example, the shell could be programmed to explode in the   
   air above a target or to penetrate its armor. Other companies are exploring   
   the possibility of    
   being able to adjust how much of a shell’s warhead detonates at the target,   
   to potentially reduce collateral damage.    
      
   And other companies are working to increase manufacturing capacity and speed   
   up production amid higher demand from Ukraine and, more recently, Israel. A   
   shortage of shells in the U.S. and Europe has meant Ukraine has been forced to   
   ration their use at    
   some points during its defense against Russia.   
      
   Both the U.S. and Europe produced about 300,000 artillery shells last year,   
   according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies. The European   
   Union believes its producers can increase production to one million shells by   
   next year and the U.S.    
   is looking at a level of 1.2 million.   
      
   To speed up its supply chain, BAE is using electric fuses that use   
   commercially available components and is switching to more commonly available   
   grades of steel that are easier to source. It is also testing a way to use   
   sound waves to mix explosives that    
   it says could save time.   
      
   Manufacturing shells can be a lucrative business. Germany’s Rheinmetall said   
   this month that it expects operating margins of 25% this year at its newly   
   acquired Spanish shell maker compared with 8.4% for its wider business.     
      
   An advantage artillery shells hold over missiles is that they are quicker and   
   cheaper to make.   
      
   Cruise missiles can cost millions of dollars, and the rockets used in   
   U.S.-guided missile systems, like Himars, cost $150,000 each. By contrast, a   
   standard 155-millimeter high-explosive shell costs about $800 and a   
   more-sophisticated guided Excalibur    
   shell is about $68,000, according to CSIS.   
      
   BAE and Nammo haven’t disclosed how much their new shell will cost once in   
   production, though the latter has said its ramjet shells could be considered   
   high cost in comparison with other artillery products.   
      
   Given the high expense of missiles, most countries have small stocks. Germany,   
   for instance, has a stockpile of around 600 Taurus missiles.   
      
      
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