Non-Line-of-Sight Cannon

The Non-Line-of-Sight Cannon (NLOS Cannon) will serve as the key indirect fire support system for the FCS program.

The NLOS Cannon is a fully automated system that integrates all crew operations – firing, moving, training and maintenance – into a digitized cockpit specifically designed to ensure the cannoneers of the future force successfully operate in a network-centric battlefield.

The FCS development schedule calls for the first NLOS Cannon prototypes to be delivered in 2008 for testing with an FCS Evaluation Brigade Combat Team.

As part of NLOS Cannon development, BAE Systems developed a NLOS Cannon Firing Platform that is the first step toward development of NLOS Cannon prototypes scheduled to begin testing in 2008. The Firing Platform features a 38-caliber length, fully automated 155-mm howitzer. The Firing Platform will undergo testing and qualification of its ultra-lightweight cannon and breech at Army testing facilities. Data from these tests will support obtaining a safety release, which will allow soldiers to begin testing the NLOS Cannon prototypes.

The platform, made of a combination of high-strength steel and aluminum, incorporates a cannon assembly that is 1,200 pounds lighter than the M777 cannon used on the NLOS Cannon Concept Technology Demonstrator previously developed and tested by BAE Systems.

BAE Systems is integrating many of the highly advanced and proven systems and technologies developed for NLOS Cannon into other FCS Manned Ground Vehicles.

NLOS Cannon’s two-man crew compartment will offer the crew a real-time digital operating environment, as well as protection in the nuclear, biological and chemical environments.

This fully automated system, integral to the FCS C4ISR environment will generate mass effects across the future battlefield and provide the flexible lethality necessary to the future force. More information about the NLOS Cannon is available at www.baesystemspresskit.com/nlos_cannon.