It was about time, one might say… The European Defense Agency has announced that it has selected the partners who will participate in the PILUM program, for Projectiles for Increased Long-range effects Using Electro-Magnetics (a little capilotracted as an acronym), a program aimed at to study and develop a prototype of electric cannon, or Railgun, in the next two years. The European consortium thus created brings together the French Nexter Systems, Nexter Munitions and Naval Group, the Belgian Von Karman Research Institute, the German Diehl Defense, the Polish Explomet and the Italian ICAR. It will be piloted by the Franco-German Saint-Louis Institute, which has already developed initial expertise in the field, and will be funded by the European Commission through the Preparatory Action on Defense Research or PADR program.
The objectives of the program are dual, since it involves both designing a digital model serving as a basis for the design of a demonstrator, as well as defining the actual operational capabilities of such a system, and whether in the fields of land, naval or naval combat, but also to overcome the A2 / AD denial of access systems which are multiplying on the planet. As such, the presence of Naval Group and Nexter not only marks the interest (and therefore the awareness) of France in this weapon system, but also the expected versatility of this gun, which should be used from land vehicles as well as from combat ships.
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