“If you look at the [fight] in Ukraine on either side, it's really hard to move out and get fires ready to go…. The Paladin is just incapable of it at speed," Army Secretary Dan Driscoll said today.
The race to get the new combat vehicle was originally planned to kick off about a year ago, but was pushed off due to the Army Transformation Initiative.
The Sixth Domain is not defined by geography. It’s a new kind of conflict in which autonomy and networked systems allow thousand-dollar consumer electronics to destroy multi-million-dollar conventional weapons systems.
Though the Army said “the scope and organization of a soldier experiment for self-propelled artillery is still being defined,” the RFI suggests that the service is primarily looking for US-made and -manufactured solutions.
Vietnam recognizes the need to diversify sources of military equipment away from Russia, and it wants to become more self-sufficient in terms of domestic production. However, it faces hurdles along the way.
"This follow-up order reflects the deepening defense partnership between Korea and India," Jae-il Son, CEO and president of Hanwha Aerospace, said in a statement.
Under the new plan, the service could potentially begin fielding a mix of self-propelled howitzers in 2030, according to Maj. Gen. Glenn Dean.
Government can’t stop to update systems, so modernization has to happen without interruptions.