BAE Systems to supply 155mm Smoke, Iluminating artillery rounds to UK MoD

BAE Systems has won a $21 million contract to supply 155mm smoke and illuminating artillery rounds to the UK.

Rheinmetall’s existing Assegai Carrier design will be used which will deliver time and cost savings by removing the need for an entirely new round to be designed, the company said in a statement Tuesday.

The shell bodies will be manufactured at BAE Systems’ UK facility in Washington, while the Smoke and Illuminating payloads will be assembled into the shells at the Company’s Glascoed facility in South Wales.

Smoke and Illuminating rounds are used to aid battlefield manoeuvrability for land-based assets during day and night operations. The Smoke rounds are multi-spectral, meaning they obscure the battlefield both visually and in the thermal range. They offer longer burn duration and intensity when obscuriUnng or lighting the battlefield.