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Australian Army soldiers have conducted their first live-fire verification of new 155mm Assegai ammunition in Queensland.
Personnel from the 4th Regiment, Royal Australian Artillery, undertook the validation serial of the Land 17 Phase 1C.2 Assegai ammunition at Townsville Field Training Area on 25 and 26 March this year.
The new Assegai ammunition, used during Exercise Shot Start, is expected to improve options for Artillery Gun Regiments to support their brigades and deliver combined arms effects with greater range and lethality.
“It is longer, it is extreme range for us – over 30km, which adds at least 30 per cent to our current in-service ammunition range,” 4th Regiment Commanding Officer Lieutenant Colonel Simon Frewin reportedly told Channel 7 News reporters.
“We need less rounds to achieve what we used to, and each round does more in terms of explosive at the other end than we had before.”
NIOA and supply partners JUNGHANS Microtec GmbH, Nitrochemie Aschau GmbH, and Rheinmetall Denel Munitions worked in close collaboration with Defence to deliver and integrate Assegai round into the Army’s M777A2 howitzers under the LAND 17-1 C.2 Future Artillery Ammunition program.
The modular Assegai projectile variants include conventional HE, Insensitive Munition High Explosive (IHE), IHE Pre-Fragmented (PFF), screening smoke, illumination (infrared and visual), base-bleed practice and inert projectiles. The Velocity Enhanced Long Range Artillery Projectile (V-LAP) provides a growth path to greater range and affordable precision.
“We congratulate Army on the successful completion of this live-fire exercise,” according to NIOA Australia-New Zealand chief executive Ben James.
“The Assegai munition offers significant improvements in range, lethality and adaptability over current 155mm munition inventories, with various warhead configuration, including precision-guided variants, smoke, and illumination rounds.
“It reinforces NIOA’s commitment to equipping the men and women of the Australian Army with the most advanced, effective munitions.”
In 2023, NIOA previously confirmed an extended partnership with Defence to future proof supply of advanced artillery rounds for the Australian Army.
At that time, the company locked in another five-year term to supply the Assegai suite of munitions under the LAND 17-1C.2 Future Artillery Ammunition (FAA) program.
