Another evolutionary effort surrounding the M777 involves plans to “refresh” its digitized fire control system.

Describing it as “that leap-ahead technology provided to towed artillery,” Gooding said, “the digital fire control has really transformed how we are seeing Marines use artillery, having the embedded capability of the Excalibur precision round, which has been used very effectively in Afghanistan.”

As an example of this effective use, he highlighted a February 2012 fire mission in Afghanistan during which a Marine Corps M777 at Forward Operating Base Zeebrugge fired an M982 Excalibur round on insurgents in Kajaki, located in neighboring Musa Qala district.

The round traveled a “record” range of more than 22 miles (36 kilometers) to kill a team of Taliban fighters.

“It was extraordinary for us to see precision artillery used at those sorts of ranges,” Gooding said. “When you look at the pictures from Afghanistan and see the locations of the guns and the surrounding terrain that they are firing over – with the U.S. ability to helicopter this weapon system in – you realize that we couldn’t do that with the ’198. But we can get the Triple Seven over the mountains and into these operating bases where there aren’t any roads. It’s just extraordinary that we’re able to do that. And this is what the weapon system was designed for – to do exactly what it’s doing in Afghanistan.”

Gooding said that future plans surrounding the digitized fire control system focus on addressing issues of obsolescence of electronics.

“In your laptop computer or your television or your DVR, you’re dealing with obsolescence every couple of years,” he said. “So as we move forward in sustainment of the Triple Seven we’re looking at the refresh of the electronic components. It’s not that the system out there is bad. It’s just that the system was designed in the late ’90s and now we are starting to look at the fact that there are some components we can’t get anymore from the third-, fourth-, or fifth-tier supply chain. We’re also seeing incredible cost reductions for some line replaceable units [LRUs] like displays on the guns. So refreshing the electronics can be an opportunity to save money for the units as we move forward with qualifying new LRUs for the weapon system.”

Gooding added that the process would also benefit from being co-located with other Army programs at Picatinny Arsenal, N.J.

“The Army here went through the digital fire control effort on their self-propelled M109A6 Paladin howitzers,” he stated. “And we can draw from the lessons learned on Paladin and their digital fire control in terms of understanding that with the electronics there is an ongoing refresh that you constantly need to be looking at for sustainment – looking at the different LRUs and upgrading them when it’s applicable. So that’s something we’re looking at for both the Marine Corps and the Army.”

Another area of synergy between the services stems from the fact that the Army M119 will also soon receive its own digitized fire control package and the ability to apply lessons from that effort to the M777 digital refresh package provides additional performance and cost advantages.

“Those are just some of the synergies of having the towed platforms under one program office. The technical benefits coming out of one Army program can be applied to Triple Seven to support both the Army and the Marine Corps,” Gooding said.

Along with the cannon systems, PM TAS is also addressing a number of related target acquisition and ancillary equipment programs.

“The Improved Positioning and Azimuth Determining System [IPADS] is a piece of survey gear,” Gooding explained. “We’re not a true joint program on this, but the Marine Corps also uses IPADS and the Army and Marine Corps work hand in hand on issues like contracting and engineering support. So the two services are tied at the hip on IPADS.

“I’m working to try to be more proactive in the target acquisition community in terms of the howitzers,” he continued. “A lot of the ancillary gear that we use on the howitzers tends to fall below ‘the cut line’ in terms of supportability, with an example of that being the muzzle velocity sensor system chronograph used on the howitzer. We had some problems with that, so what we did in the program office was to create a common buy between the Army and the Marine Corps and incorporated the M119 105 howitzer with the same chronograph. Incorporating both Marine Corps M777s and Army M119s not only lowered unit costs but lessened the training footprint for Army soldiers who might shift between M777 and M119 and allowed us to do some life cycle savings. Another thing we did was, instead of making the chronograph a stand-alone item, we made it a Component of the End Item [COEI]. So now it falls under the umbrella of the howitzer and, with respect to funding, I can now use howitzer funding to support the chronograph in the field. That gives us a lot of leverage and allows us to look at the chronograph as almost another line replaceable unit,” he said.

“We’re also looking at things like aiming circles, gunner’s quadrants, and other ancillary pieces of gear,” Gooding concluded. “We’re not building an empire here. For us, it’s all about trying to support the artillery. And having a common forum for the different pieces of support equipment helps in that important role.”

This article was first published in Marine Corps Outlook: 2012-2013 Edition.