Electrothermal Chemical (ETC) Armament System Integration Into a Combat Vehicle

Abstract

On August 18, 2004, BAE Systems achieved an industry first when we successfully fired a 120-mm electrothermal chemical (ETC) gun from a hybrid electric drive combat vehicle. This achievement, using a fully integrated 100-kJ pulsed power supply, was accomplished through a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement with the U.S. Army's Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center (ARDEC). ARDEC is the U.S. Army's center of excellence for armament systems development. The comprehensive series of tests demonstrated that pulsed power can be safely integrated into a combat vehicle. Both ETC and conventional rounds were fired in the same salvo via a round selection command issued through the vehicle's fire control system. An autoloader was employed to load the rounds and to eject the stub cases from the vehicle. The fully automatic breech power connection was designed so the electrical energy delivered from the pulsed power system reached only the propellant and no part of the cannon or vehicle