The U.S. Army recently, and apparently inadvertently, offered a look at new concept art and models relating to a massive artillery piece that could have a range of 1,000 miles or more. The design concept has features that are reminiscent of the Cold War-era efforts such as the Army's M65 "Atomic Annie" 280mm cannon and the modified 16-inch naval gun employed in the U.S.-Canadian High Altitude Research Project, or HARP. It also has a general look that wouldn't be out of place in the G.I. Joe universe. Last week, the Army Research Laboratory (ARL), part of what is now called the Combat Capabilities Development Command (CCDC), which is itself subordinate to the service's new Futures Command, released pictures on its social media accounts of a visit by Major General John George and his staff. These include images that included details about what is officially known as the Strategic Long-Range Cannon (SLRC).

Major General George is presently head of CCDC. At the time of writing, all of the pictures from his tour of ARL appear to no longer be available official pages, but copies showing the concept art, models, and poster with basic SLRC details are now floating around online. "Penetrates and dis-integrates enemy A2/AD [anti access, area denial] defenses to create windows of opportunity for exploitation by the Joint Force," the SLRC poster reads. "Platform is comprised of a weapon, prime mover, and trailer, [and] projectile and propelling charge capable of delivering massed fires at strategic ranges for multi-domain operations."

US Army

US Army

US Army

US Army

The poster also lists the following four "key points":

"Range: Beyond 1000 miles"

"Crew: 8 Personnel Per platform"

"Quantity: 4 Platforms Per Battery"

"Transportability: Sea and Air"

For comparison, the Army's standard 155mm M777 towed howitzer takes five people to operate and a maximum range of 25 miles when using M982 Excalibur precision-guided shells. The new 155mm M109A7 self-propelled howitzer has a crew of four and can hit targets out to around 19 miles with rocket-assisted shells. The poster does not offer any other hard requirements for the SLRC, such as the diameter of the cannon, the length of its barrel, the weight of the system or its ammunition. The poster does show at least a notional configuration for the weapon. This includes the cannon on a "platform" that a prime mover – an 8x8 Oshkosh M1070 Heavy Equipment Transporter System (HETS) tractor is depicted on the poster – would bring to a particular location. Personnel would then disconnect the platform from the trailer, which consists of a detachable gooseneck and connects to the tractor, and a six-wheel trailing section. The weapon would then be employed from this fixed location.

US Army An M1070 HETS tractor.