For years, Israel has been working on rolling out a new type of futuristic artillery that is supposed to help transform the Israel Defense Forces into a superior fighting machine. The new weapon, named Roem, is a large gun that sits on the back of a wheeled vehicle, in contrast to the current Israeli artillery that consists of the M109 howitzer on a vehicle with treads.
The immediate difference may not be obvious. It still fires the same caliber shells for instance, but it is part of a larger investment in new technology in the IDF. Think of this like moving to F-35 warplanes from older jet fighters.
In June, the IDF gave a preview of what the new system means for the military. A video it produced and an article on its website said that the new cannon was fired by IDF gunners for the first time in operational use. It is “the first cannon in the world capable of automatic firing,” the army said at the time.
“The new cannon brings with it new and groundbreaking capabilities to the battlefield, significantly increases the rate of fire, allows firing at longer ranges than the existing cannon in use in the IDF today, enables independent and fast movement on roads, and has high movement capabilities in the field,” it said.
In essence, what this means is automating the systems that otherwise would be done by soldiers, such as loading the cannon. These are basic aspects of what artillery men did for hundreds of years.
Israel’s Chief of Artillery Brig.-Gen. Yair Natans has praised the system for bringing new capabilities that enable close cooperation with ground forces. It will change how artillery is used. “We have taken another significant step toward the addition of the Roem to the diverse fire capabilities that corps commanders use to assist the maneuvering forces,” he said in June.
TO LEARN more about the new gun, I went down to a base in central Israel to speak to the man who was the head of the department for the Roem, which means “thunderous.” Maj. Nate Franz is the head of the department of artillery in the IDF. In his modest office, he has a small model of the new Roem, the kind that might look like a toy for kids to play with.
He explains the concept behind the system. It’s basically placing a large gun on a truck chassis with wheels. This is similar to what Israel did with the new Eitan APC. It moved from the treaded Namer (“tiger”), which is heavy, to the lighter Eitan (“strong”) which has large wheels. Wheels enable you to drive faster and on roads. Tank treads churn up the environment and are slower.
While the drivers sit at the front of the truck, the automated gun is on the rear and can move to face a number of directions. Three soldiers sit in the cabin of the truck, and the shooting is done automatically. This is different from the crew of an M109, where you’d have a half dozen men operating the cannon, moving the munitions by hand, and putting in the shells and charges and prepping them for fire.
In essence, an M109, even though it looks like a tank, is basically how people have used artillery cannons since the time of the Napoleonic wars. Now computers and robotics will do a lot of the work.
The new cannon is faster because it is automated. It can fire eight of its 155mm rounds per minute. That is twice the rate of a modern M109.
When the Roem enters service, it will be deployed with one of the artillery battalions of Israel’s regular forces. This is likely to happen in the 282nd Artillery Brigade, which is part of the 36th Division. According to soldiers I spoke to in the 405th Battalion of that unit, they may be among the first to use the system. Even when the Roem is rolled out, it will take time, and the M109s will still be used by many artillery units.
The Roem Project
THE ROEM project dates back decades in terms of when the idea first came to the IDF to build a new artillery piece, Maj. Franz says. He’s been in service since 2004 and is intimately familiar with the M109s, which he has used for almost two decades of service.
The new Roem was developed by Elbit Systems. “Led by the Defense Ministry and defense manufacturer Elbit, the new Israeli cannon is already considered to be one of Israel’s premier security projects,” Ynet noted last year. “Most of its internal components remain classified. Only a handful of prototypes exist, and one has been modified for potential foreign customers.” In that report, Ynet said a “European variant” of the cannon could fire up to 80 km. The Israeli version will apparently have a shorter range.
The new weapon, because it will have more maneuverability and a higher firing rate than the M109, means that the overall size of artillery units can change slightly. A standard battery of M109s, which usually has around eight guns, can be downsized a bit to 60% of the number of vehicles previously used. What that would also mean is that crews are freed up to do other things.
Israel has a variety of weapon systems within its artillery brigades, so reducing the number of guns, because each gun can fire more munitions faster, doesn’t necessarily mean reducing the overall size of the units. It means bringing efficiency to the artillery, flexibility and also more precise, lethal fire support on the battlefield.
“It can do more with less,” says Franz. The system is accompanied by a truck that carries the munitions. The current munitions trucks are called “Alfas” in the IDF. Loading of the munitions can also be automated to assist crews with that process as well. “The orientation will be different. As soldiers, we will have different orientation and training. It’s a new tool, and it will change,” the major says.
Many soldiers will say they prefer the older M109s that they are familiar with. However, change comes in every war. People will learn to use the new technology which will be a bit more hands-off because soldiers don’t have to be in the back of the vehicle loading the shells and doing everything manually.
I ASKED about whether this reliance on digital and automated tech has its drawbacks. The officer responded that it’s the same with using maps on devices, like a smart phone. We can’t go back to old road maps. That’s true, but it’s also true that when everything is automated and digital, it has vulnerabilities that hand-loading a cannon might not have.
The changes with the Roem will come with time, and the IDF will learn how best to use it. Its flexibility, being able to deploy quickly on roads for instance, will make maneuvering faster. Its rapid fire will also be able to bring more efficient fire support. The IDF also seeks to improve the precision of the shells being used. “It will take time to bring in a tool; we won’t bring in something that isn’t 100%, Franz says. “We want to prepare everything – in terms of training and everything to bring the unit to it.”
In a conversation with Lt.-Col. Eitan Gillis, from the 405th Battalion, he described the Roem as state of the art. “It will bring us a lot more technology and bring us a more effective lethal firing system that we can do more with less.” The system is more than just artillery, he said. It will enable units to “close the circle” faster and improve the strength of the IDF. “Closing the circle” means the time it takes from when a unit wants fire support against a target to when the target is eliminated. A faster gun system can make that happen quickly.
When the Roem is deployed, it will take place with the lessons of the war in Gaza and the clashes with Hezbollah, which have seen an unprecedented use of artillery by the IDF. Artillery units have been using the 155mm munitions that the M109s use at a high level in this war. They have supported infantry and tanks in the field and brought down fire in close support more than in past wars.
That means being able to target enemies very close to IDF troops with more cooperation, efficiency, lethality, and precision. All of this will be improved with the Roem and will be part of the overall technological revolution in the IDF that knits together F-35s with Eitan APCs, Sa’ar 6 ships, and the new Roem cannons.
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