WASHINGTON — BAE Systems will build M777 lightweight howitzer structures for the U.S. Army, which could lead to the firm restarting the weapon’s production line, according to the U.K.-based business. The deal is limited to $50 million and “allows BAE Systems to start delivering on the howitzer program, while finalizing the details of the contract and its total value with the customer,” the company said in a Jan. 4 statement.
The U.S., Canada and Australia have sent M777 towed howitzers to Ukraine to support its fight against Russia’s full-scale invasion, which began in February 2022. According to a Pentagon fact sheet issued last month, Ukraine has received nearly 200 155mm howitzers from the U.S. alone, which includes the M777. Howitzers of many varieties have played a critical role on the artillery-centric battlefield — and have reinvigorated the appetite for such weapons in the U.S. and among its partners and allies. BAE will reboot its supply chain in the U.K. and the U.S. to build the titanium structures — the basis of the gun — with plans to deliver the first in 2025.
The U.S. Army was BAE’s first M777 customer. Part of the production work took place in Barrow-in-Furness, England, with a final integration assembly and test facility in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, which has been closed for roughly a decade. Orders from the Army slowed down over the last decade, and the service ordered its final 18 guns in 2019. BAE delivered that howitzer to the service in February 2023, according to Lisa Hillary-Tee, a company spokeswoman.
BAE said there are more than 1,250 M777s in service with the U.S., Ukraine, Canada, Australia and India. Meanwhile, the U.S. Army is working on a new artillery strategy to determine both capability and capacity of what exists, and what the Army may need, the head of Army Futures Command, Gen. James Rainey, told Defense News last year. The strategy will also consider new technology to enhance conventional fires on the battlefield, such as advances in propellant that make it possible for midrange cannons to shoot as far as longer-range systems.
