Frontier India Strategic and Defence - News, Analysis, Opinion

Written on July 23, 2008 – 11:57 pm | by Frontier India Strategic and Defence |

The General Delegation for Armaments (DGA) has delivered on July 16 the first Caesar cannon artillery (truck equipped with an artillery system) serially produced for the French Army. Seven additional guns will be delivered before the end of 2008. The contract for CAESAR was notified in December 2004 to Nexter Systems, for development, acquisition and support of 77 guns with deliveries spread until 2011.

The CAESAR is a new concept cannon mounted on a truck which has been positioned between the towed guns and self-propelled tracked howitzers. The 155-mm gun has a range more than 40 km with a canon with 52-caliber. It is mounted on a 6×6 truck with armored cab. The speed of the vehicle on the road is more than 80 kph and can travel a distance greater than 600 km.

Weighing less than 18 tonnes, it can be airlifted in C-130 Hercules military aircraft and A400M. CAESAR can be ready-to-fire in less than a minute by a five men crew and ready to go just as quickly, enabling him to avoid counter-battery fire. CAESAR is connected to the ATLAS system, the system of information and communication of artillery regiments.

CAESAR is already a success in the export market. Two contracts were signed, one with Thailand (6 systems), the other with an undisclosed Middle East country (80 systems).