Army Armored Systems

The Army is developing its next generation field artillery system, called the Crusader, to support its fast-moving maneuver forces. The Crusader consists of a self-propelled 155-millimeter howitzer and a resupply vehicle. This report discusses (1) the status of the Crusader program and (2) whether alternative howitzer systems exist that could meet the Crusader's requirements.

GAO noted that: (1) the Army believes that the Crusader system, using advanced technologies, has the potential to revolutionize field artillery operations; (2) according to Army analyses, the system could increase force effectiveness, in terms of rounds fired, missions completed, and enemy systems destroyed and reduce U.S. losses, up to 52 percent; (3) however, developing and integrating the Crusader system to meet all the Army's requirements will be technically challenging because it depends heavily upon the accomplishment of many technological firsts for U.S. field artillery systems; (4) these include the automated ammunition loading and handling system, automated ammunition and fuel transfer system, and actively cooled cannon barrel; (5) not meeting some requirements could have an adverse effect on system potential; (6) for example, the system needs to achieve a 10-rounds-per-minute firing rate because the Army's force effectiveness analyses showed that an eight-round rate would cause the U.S. force to lose in some battlefield scenarios; (7) also, as currently designed, some subsystems have no backup capabilities, therefore, if the system does not meet its reliability requirement, it may not be able to perform its mission; (8) for example, the Crusader's autoloader has no backup; (9) if the autoloader fails, the Crusader howitzer will be unable to fire because the cannon cannot be hand loaded; (10) in response to funding reductions, the Army is making critical program scheduling decisions that will compress the program's schedule beyond its already-compressed schedule under the streamlined acquisition process; (11) in the past, such schedule adjustments have resulted in reduced testing and/or concurrent testing, allowing programs to enter low-rate initial production before they were ready; (12) allowing programs to enter low-rate initial production before they were ready has often resulted in procurement of substantial inventories of unsatisfactory weapon systems which required costly modifications or, in some cases, substandard weapon systems being procured for combat forces; (13) no existing alternative artillery system meets all of the Army's projected artillery requirements; and (14) however, if the Crusader cannot meet its requirements, other artillery systems, such as an improved Paladin or the German PzH 2000 self-propelled howitzer, may provide an alternative to improve the Army's current artillery capabilities.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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