Jane Edwards
Orbital ATK will carry out the initial phase of development work on a new 120-millimeter tank ammunition under a potential $16 million contract with the U.S. Army.
The company said Thursday it will manufacture the Advanced Multi-Purpose XM1147 High Explosive Multi-Purpose round for the service branch’s Abrams battle tanks.
The AMP tank ammo has a Tracer cartridge and is built to replace four current tank rounds.
The new round is designed to allow tank crews to counter light armor, bunkers, reinforced walls and enemy dismounts at ranges of approximately 2,000 meters.
Dan Olson, vice president and general manager of the armament systems division at Orbital ATK, said the company works to leverage its experience in platform and weapons integration to develop kinetic energy-based round for warfighters.
Orbital ATK said it worked with the service branch to complete the qualification phase on the 120mm M829E4 kinetic energy-based ammunition this year.
M829E4 contains a penetrator that works against various armor protection systems.
