Abstract: Congress expressed concern in the Fiscal Year 2000 Defense Appropriations Conference Report 106-371 to the 2000 Department of Defense Appropriations Act that the Marine Corps and Army are not utilizing the expertise of Army arsenals in the development and design of the Lightweight 155mm Howitzer (LW155). In particular, Congress requested a plan to include Rock Island Arsenal (RIA) in producibility and manufacturing aspects of LW155 and other Army/Marine Corps future towed artillery programs. The LW155 program office is currently receiving significant technical and logistical expertise from various Marine Corps and Army organizations. Personnel located at RIA have been assisting the program in logistical areas and RIA producibility experience is planned to be utilized as the program completes development and enters production. The LWlS5 is being developed by Vickers Shipbuilding & Engineering Ltd. (VSEL) of the United Kingdom whose design was selected as a result of an extensive nine month shoot-off and evaluation. As part of the development contract, the Marine Corps obtained option prices from VSEL for the first 19'0 production howitzers of the United States Marine Corps's planned acquisition objective of 450. VSEL is currently soliciting subcontractors in the US to provide materials, produce components and assemble the completed howitzer. The efforts being sought by VSEL in the US will account for approximately 70% of the completed LW155. VSEL has solicited US industrial sources as well as RIA to be subcontractors for the LWl5S. The report concludes the best plan for the Marine Corps and Army is to use RIA experience and expertise during development in producibility and manufacturing planning. RIA has personnel with advanced metalworking skills who are on an equal footing with American industry when considering experience in working with titanium, lightweight high strength alloys, and composite materials.
| Limitations: |
 APPROVED FOR PUBLIC RELEASE |
| Pages: |
16 |
| Report Date: |
DEC 1999 |
| Report Number: |
A381573 |
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