Soft Recoil Technology Could Let The Army Put Heavy Guns On Light, Maneuverable Ground Vehicles

Over the next year the Army will evaluate soft recoil gun technology (SRT) on light combat vehicles starting with a pair of HUMVEES equipped with 105mm Howitzers. Soft recoil could not only make it possible to fit relatively light vehicles like HUMVEES or medium tactical trucks with up to 155mm guns, but make light artillery more survivable in the bargain.

AM General has teamed with Illinois-based engineering firm, Mandus Group to integrate the latter's SRT system onto HUMVEE and truck prototypes called Hawkeye and Brutus. Mandus Group first debuted its system in 2016 and, in cooperation with AM General, has shown it to the Army in brief demonstrations with the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions and at the Army’s annual Northern Strike exercises in Michigan.

In the months to come, the team will hand over a pair of Hawkeye prototypes (soft recoil-enabled HUMVEE 2CTs with 105mm Howitzers ) to the Army's program manager for Towed Artillery Systems (PM-TAS) at Picatinny Arsenal in New Jersey for "characterization tests".

Regis Luther, AM General's chief technology officer, says that SRT can enable the carriage of heavier guns on light vehicles because it reduces recoil shock by up to 60%, diminishing the chances of recoil-induced rollover and cushioning the recoil-induced fatigue load to vehicle chassis.

On Hawkeye, the system combines external stabilizers that look like the legs you'd see splayed out behind a backhoe or in front of a heavy tow truck with a hydraulic system internal to the Howitzer barrel. The external stabilizers quickly retract for stowage when the vehicle is in motion and are lowered hydraulically when it’s time to fire the gun.

Firing of the Howitzer is softened by the configuration of the gun barrel and SRT hydraulics, Regis Luther, AM General’s chief technology officer, explains.

“Just prior to firing, the gun barrel is in a retracted position. As it is [commanded] to fire [the barrel] moves forward to near the end of its travel. When the round fires, there’s a large returning force and the hydraulics shift from moving the barrel forward to catching it and slowing the rebound of the firing force.”

“The range of motion is longer than with a non-soft reoil weapon,” Luther says. The effect is that the vehicle moves less while the gun moves more. The technology makes it possible to actually place the guns directly on smaller, elusive platforms rather than towing them behind light or medium tactical vehicles.

“SRT gives us the ability to shoot-and-scoot in about half the time,” Luther asserts.

“Towed artillery is pulled behind a prime mover thanks to its weight. When they fire, they have to disconnect it from the [tow vehicle] and fire it in-place. With the Hawkeye with the 105mm, we only need to put down the stabilizers, aim and fire the weapon. When you’re done, you re-emplace the weapon, pull up the stabilizers and move. It cuts several minutes off the firing time.”

In the time it takes for adversaries to locate the source of the rounds landing on them, the Hawkeye has already moved to another location. Owing to the blast radius of typical enemy counter-artillery, even as little as a quarter-mile away is sufficient to be survivable Luther says.

SRT also enables firing larger charges than otherwise possible. Integrating the gun with a single platform enables greater stealth and hiding capability than a vehicle/towed-artillery piece combo. The agility of a single platform traversing off-road terrain is also better than towing.

“Hawkeye can be moved moved by air, train, ship or other transport and it takes up less room because the trailer and the truck are combined into one. It’s just more deployable,” AM General’s CTO adds.

Thanks to dedicated suspension-tuning, adding a Howitzer with SRT does not appreciably raise the Hawkeye’s center of gravity or affect its weight according to AM General. The company claims to have fired over 100 test rounds at various distances and targets from Hawkeye which it says has also completed extensive reliability testing.

AM General is touting the scalability of its SRT integration which could enable carriage of guns up to 155mm on medium tactical vehicles. The company’s Brutus 6X6 truck prototype sports a 155mm Howitzer with soft recoil technology, a combination that could potentially replace the 155mm guns typically towed behind 8X8 Stryker vehicles.

The AM General/Mandus team has reportedly offered Brutus as a candidate for the Army’s new wheeled howitzer, meant to accompany highly mobile Stryker vehicles into battle.

Applying the tech to other platforms like the Army’s Mobile Protected Firepower (MPF) light tanks could also be on the cards.

“We’re looking at mortars up to 81mm and applications up to the M1 Abrams [tank] 120mm main gun. Soft recoil technology applies to anything that fires in a similar manner and it has the same affect on the [platform]. You’re bringing the prime mover down by one vehicle size or perhaps two,” Luther says.

For all the potential that integrating SRT might bring, there appears to little awareness of the technology within the Army writ-large. Neither Army headquarters nor its Program Office for Combat Support and Combat Service Support (PEO CS & CSS) was aware of which Army entity is doing the characterization tests of the Hawkeye.

“Characterization” doesn’t equate to formal interest strong enough to get funding rolling for potential Hawkeye acquisition. But the Army’s enthusiasm for amping the mobility of its light infantry forces with acquisition efforts over the last several years (from MPF to the Infantry Squad Vehicle) suggests that the idea of putting larger weapons on small agile vehicles has the service’s attention.

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