In a major milestone for the US Army's Future Combat Systems (FCS) modernisation programme, the service announced on 9 June the completion of the first full prototype of the Non-Line-of-Sight Cannon (NLOS-C): an advanced, self-propelled 155 mm howitzer. The service unveiled the first NLOS-C on 11 June in Washington. Production of additional NLOS-C prototype vehicles is currently under way at a BAE Systems facility in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and the NLOS-C firing platform - a cannon on a surrogate chassis without the full electronics suite - is undergoing tests at Yuma Proving Ground, Arizona. That system has fired over 2,000 rounds. NLOS-C is the first of a family of eight manned ground vehicles that will form the core of FCS-centred army brigades. The FCS manned ground vehicles will share a common chassis and a hybrid engine design, reducing the maintenance and logistics burden of future brigades and creating more commonality in training and operation. Among other things, the NLOS-C features a fully automated loading system, a projectile tracking system and a network capability that allows the crew to share data and targeting information across the FCS network. It will be manned by a crew of two.
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