BAE Systems has signed a $500 million contract with Sweden for the delivery of nearly 50 more Archer mobile artillery systems, the company said on Wednesday.
Sweden, as well as the U.K., have donated Archer 155mm self-propelled howitzers to assist Ukraine in its fight against Russia’s ongoing invasion, with the new deal set to replenish some of Stockholm’s capabilities.
“This important milestone establishes Archer as the basis of the Swedish Army’s new divisional artillery forces,” Lena Gillström, president of BAE Systems Bofors, said in a statement.
BAE Systems said delivery of the 48 new Archers, which are built on Rheinmetall MAN HX2 8×8 tactical trucks, will begin in 2025.
Archers are capable of firing “BONUS anti-armor munitions up to 35 kilometers, conventional munitions up to 40 kilometers and the precision-guided munition Excalibur in excess of 50 kilometers,” BAE Systems noted.
In late 2020, the U.S. Army selected BAE Systems’ Archer and Elbit America’s ATMOS Iron Sabre for a mobile howitzer shoot-off at Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona (Defense Daily, Dec. 17 2020).
BAE Systems has previously said Archer is a “production-ready system” at a “high manufacturing-readiness level,” which is designed for improved crew safety, high rate of fire, and the ability to set up the system within 30 seconds (Defense Daily, Oct. 19 2020).