In his speech yesterday on the 2017 Defense Budget, U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter mentioned a second, previously unknown program meant to keep America's technological edge on the battlefield. The program would "turn past offense into future defense," using long-range guns already fielded in large numbers to shoot down ballistic missiles capable of carrying chemical or nuclear warheads.

Carter revealed the Pentagon was experimenting with hypervelocity projectiles developed for electromagnetic railguns—currently under development—and adapting them to conventional artillery to shoot down ballistic missiles. The secretary mentioned the Army's 155-millimeter Paladin howitzers as one platform for the artillery projectile, and the Navy's 5-inch guns (or 127-mm) as the other.

The novel project will turn U.S. Army field artillery into ballistic missile defenders. Each U.S. Army Armored Brigade Combat Team has a battalion of 18 Paladin howitzers, meaning the platform is already integrated into the structure of heavier Army brigades. There's no mention of whether or not the lighter M777 towed howitzer used by light infantry, airborne, air assault and Stryker brigades is capable of using the new projectile. The M777 is also used by the Marine Corps and allies such as Canada and Australia.

Similarly, creating an anti-missile projectile for the Navy's guns will turn every destroyer and cruiser into a ballistic missile defense platform. Many of the Ticonderoga-class cruisers and Arleigh Burke-class destroyers are already capable of downing ballistic missiles with the SM-3 interceptor , but this would add a second, less expensive layer of defense to a fleet already threatened by Chinese DF-21 "carrier killer" missiles .

Carter believes that the new projectiles will be cheaper than expensive new missiles or developing a new platform entirely. The projectiles will be cheaper than the missiles an adversary might launch at U.S. forces, "imposing higher costs on an attacker."

If all of that is too defensively minded for you, Carter also mentioned this tidbit: "We tested the first shots of the hypervelocity projectile out of a Paladin a little over a month ago, and we also found that it significantly increases the Paladin's range." In other words, it sounds like the reach of field artillery lobbing high explosives on the battlefield is about to get a lot longer. Stay tuned.

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