ARSENAL GETS ORDERS FOR MODIFIED WEAPON SYSTEM
Chrome tubes touted as easier to maintain in field
WATERVLIET, N. Y. » The Watervliet Arsenal’s efforts to leverage a newly tested manufacturing process that will improve military readiness has led to the award of two contracts valued at more than $ 28 million.
A U. S. Army contract valued at nearly $ 15 million will require the arsenal to manufacture more than 100 M776 full- bore chrome tubes for the lightweight 155- millimeter towed- howitzer system, the M777A2. A contract with the U. S. Marine Corps, valued atmore than $ 13 million, is very similar to the Army order in that the arsenal will manufacture more than 100 M776 full- bore chrome tubes for the same howitzer system.
Given the long lead time to procure raw material, the arsenal will begin delivery of the chrome tubes in 2019 and complete both orders by 2020.
Arsenal officials said in a news release that these barrels will greatly improve readiness because the chrome plating may provide a nearly 50 percent increase inthe life of the tubes, while making it easier for troops to perform maintenance. The M777 155- millimeter howitzer is a relatively new weapon system, having only gone into full- rate production at the arsenal in 2005, but the system’s steel barrel currently does not have a chrome bore.
“This is great news for the arsenal in that thesemultimillion- dollar orders will require more than 51,000 hours of direct labor and thousands of more hours of indirect labor,” said Tom Pond, the arsenal’s director of operations. “Given the many years of reduced defense budgets due to sequestration, these contracts are the type of orders that we have been waiting for, given that they will exercise most of the arsenal’s critical manufacturing skills, while providing our manufacturing center consistent workload for many years.”
George Roach, product manager for these orders, said the significance of these orders far exceeds simply providing thousands of hours of labor; they also represent approval by the Defense Department to adopt a relatively new manufacturing process for the system that was developed at the arsenal by manufacturing experts and by research and design experts from the Army’s Benét Laboratories. “Although chrome plating on weapon systems is not new, what is newis that full- bore chrome barrels for the M777 gun only began testing in 2013,” Roach said. “To date, we have only manufactured 15 fullbore chrome barrels, and with these orders, we will now be able to go from prototype development and limited production into full- rate production.”
The Marines began testing the chrome tubes in 2016 at their Air Ground Combat Center at Twentynine Palms, California, and the results were stunning. According to a May report by Lance Cpl. Levi Schultz, 11th Marine Regiment, artillerymen found the chrome tubes easier to clean than steel tubes because the chrome lining tended to shed off residue easier. Marines could also fire thousands and thousands of rounds before the tubes would start to show wear, Schultz reported. Both results were exactly what the arsenal leadership was hoping for. Roach said this year represents the highest monetary volume of contracts for the M777 gun system than he has seen in the 11 years he has been managing the program at the arsenal.
“Given that there are more than 1,000 of these gun systems in the Army and Marine inventory, there is potential for the arsenal to receive more orders for full- bore chrome barrels as these orders only reflect about 20 percent of the inventory,” Roach said.
The Watervliet Arsenal is an Army- owned- and- operated manufacturing facility and is the oldest, continuously active arsenal in the United States having begun operations during the War of 1812. The arsenal is a subordinate command to TACOM Life Cycle Management Command and the Army Materiel Command.