South African defence company Rheinmetall Denel Munition (RDM) has reported that it has successfully qualified its 155-mm-calibre M2005 velocity- enhanced artillery projectile (VLAP). This is a longer-ranged enhancement of the company’s Assegai series of 155 mm artillery rounds. The qualification was done on behalf of an international client. Its development, the company stated, was the result of its policy of continually upgrading and improving its products.

“The 155 mm Assegai series has global significance in the field of artillery ammunition and consists of different projectile variants, covering the requirements of most users in training and combat today,” noted RDM CEO Norbert Schulze. In its press release, the company affirmed that the qualification of the VLAP had “once again entrenched RDM’s position as world leader in the field of artillery”.

Full-rate production of the M2005 is already under way, and the customer has received its first consignment of the new shells. It is compatible with 39-calibre, 45-calibre and 52-calibre guns of both North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) and non-Nato design. (‘Thirty-nine calibre’ means the gun barrel is 39 times the length of its calibre: in this case, 39 × 155; so, likewise, 45 × 155 and 52 × 155.) The shell is fitted with a natural fragmenting high- explosive warhead.

The Assegai M2005 VLAP is fitted with a rocket motor and a fixed base-bleed unit, both of which function outside the barrel. The VLAP benefits from the interoperability of the base-bleed and rocket motor. The qualification showed that this inter-operability had been optimised in the M2005. Although the M2005 has the same aeroballistic characteristics and profile as all the other members of the Assegai family, the extra thrust provided by the rocket affects its external ballistics. Consequently, the company has developed and provides separate range tables for the VLAP.

The tests necessary to achieve qualification were carried out in South Africa during the second half of last year. Environmental testing was carried out at RDM’s own test facilities. The qualification and range table calculation firings took place at Armscor’s Alkantpan range, in the Northern Cape, and at Denel’s Overberg Test range, in the Western Cape.
At Overberg, the VLAP achieved a maximum range of 57 km. Adjusted for climatic conditions at sea level, the range was 54 km.

The next series of improvements to the Assegai family has already been decided. One of these will be the improvement of the insensitive munition used in the high-explosive warhead. This, and other enhancements, will soon be commercially available for armed forces around the world.

The VLAP qualification programme was completed using a German 155 mm PzH2000 armoured self-propelled gun, equipped with a 52-calibre long barrel. ‘PzH’ stands for Panzerhaubitze, or armoured howitzer, and its L52 155 mm gun was designed and is produced by the Rheinmetall group in Germany.

RDM is 51%-owned by German group Rheinmetall and 49% by South Africa’s State-owned Denel group. It designs, develops and manufactures mortar bombs, aircraft bombs, artillery shells, shells for naval guns and lethal and nonlethal grenades for use by grenade launchers, as well as rocket and missile propulsion and warhead subsystems, safety and arming devices and plant design.