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Concerns raised about new Army cannon

OKLAHOMA CITY — A new Army cannon that’s partly being assembled in southwest Oklahoma is being rushed into the field prematurely, congressional auditors said.

The Government Accountability Office said the cannons are being produced years before key elements are ready, The Oklahoman reported from its Washington bureau.

The cannons are part of the Army’s Future Combat System and part of the assembly work is being done in Elgin just outside Fort Sill.

The GAO said production on the cannon is beginning five years before decisions are made about key components of the Future Combat System.

The Future Combat System is a $159 billion Army program to transform into a lighter, more mobile force.

If the other manned ground vehicles that will be part of the Future Combat System don’t match up with the early cannons, “costly rework of the cannons may be necessary if they will ever be used for other than training purposes,” the GAO, which is Congress’ investigative arm, said in a report.

A House Armed Services subcommittee is scheduled to hold a hearing on Thursday about progress being made on the Future Combat System.

There are eight prototypes of the self-propelled cannon being evaluated at the Army Evaluation Task Force at Fort Bliss, Texas.

Twelve to 18 cannons are scheduled to be produced at a cost of about $500 million in the next three years and assigned to a battalion at Fort Bliss.

Paul Mehney, an Army spokesman for the Future Combat System, said the prototypes and the first cannons to be fielded will provide valuable information and testing results for the rest of the program.

Sen. Jim Inhofe and Rep. Tom Cole have touted the new cannons as replacements for the aging Paladin system used by artillery units at Fort Sill.