NIOA has welcomed the Australian Army’s successful live-fire exercise of the Assegai 155mm munition, marking a significant milestone in advancing battlefield lethality. Soldiers from the Townsville-based 4th Artillery Regiment (4REG) have become the first to send the new projectile down the range during Exercise Shot Start.
“It is longer, it is extreme range for us – over 30km which adds at least 30 per cent to our current in-service ammunition range,” 4th Regiment Commanding Officer Lt-Col Simon Frewin told Channel 7 News. “We need less rounds to achieve what we used to, and each round does more in terms of explosive at the other end than we had before.”
NIOA and supply partners JUNGHANS Microtec GmbH, Nitrochemie Aschau GmbH and Rheinmetall Denel Munitions have worked in close collaboration with Defence to deliver and integrate Assegai round into the Army’s M777A2 howitzers under the LAND 17-1 C.2 Future Artillery Ammunition program.
The modular Assegai projectile variants include conventional HE, Insensitive Munition High Explosive (IHE), IHE Pre-Fragmented (PFF), screening smoke, illumination (infrared and visual), base-bleed practice and inert projectiles. The Velocity Enhanced Long Range Artillery Projectile (V-LAP) provides a growth path to greater range and affordable precision.
NIOA Australia-New Zealand CEO Ben James said: “We congratulate Army on the successful completion of this live-fire exercise. The Assegai munition offers significant improvements in range, lethality and adaptability over current 155mm munition inventories, with various warhead configuration, including precision guided variants, smoke, and illumination rounds. It reinforces NIOA’s commitment to equipping the men and women of the Australian Army with the most advanced, effective munitions.”
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So it’s not a guided munition, just a new type of 155mm round that has better range and more explosive effect over traditional 155mm rounds?
Also how much more expensive is this stuff? Twice the price or just an extra 20% etc.
Is this technology unique to Australia and therefore a possible export opportunity?
Yes, it’s a conventional round. The manufacturer of the Assegai (RDM) has also developed base bleed and rocket assist rounds so there is no reason why Australia could not also purchase those. From memory, base bleed gives +40km range; rocket assist + 60km.
Thanks Kim.
I really appreciate how you take the time to talk to us and answer these questions.
Hope you have an amazing weekend mate!
Thanks. I hope I’m doing something useful.