Trump-Era Push Collides With Pentagon Habit

Soldiers fire a field howitzer as smoke and dust rise around them

A new Army-backed artillery shell that can hit targets about 74 miles away could give American troops a huge edge—if Pentagon planners do not smother it in red tape and bad priorities first.

Story Snapshot

Army is backing a new 155mm shell that hit targets over 74 miles away in testing, far beyond standard artillery range.
Program demands the shell still work when GPS is jammed, a key lesson from Russian and Chinese electronic warfare.
Trump-era defense pressure for hard power and readiness is colliding with years of Pentagon habit of chasing “miracle” tech that never fully fields.
Extended-range shells could let U.S. troops strike enemy armor and air defenses deep behind the lines without risking crews up front.

What This New 74-Mile Shell Can Actually Do

The United States Army has awarded General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems a contract to prove a new long-range, maneuvering 155 millimeter shell under its Extended Range Artillery Projectile program.^[20] In earlier testing at Yuma Proving Ground, a version of this round fired from a standard M777 howitzer hit targets more than seventy-four miles away, far beyond the roughly fifteen-to-twenty-four-mile reach of legacy shells.^[2]^[6] The design uses deployable glide surfaces and advanced guidance to fly farther while staying compatible with existing guns.^[20]

The Army’s own requirements show this is not just a stunt shot. In a public notice, the service said its Extended Range Artillery Projectile must reach at least sixty-five kilometers from today’s shorter 39-caliber howitzers and over seventy kilometers from longer 52-caliber guns, while still hunting and killing armored vehicles, air defense systems, rocket launchers, and even maritime targets.^[21] That means planners want this shell to act almost like a low-cost missile that works from the same tubes artillery crews already use.

Why GPS-Proof Artillery Matters After Years of “Woke” Distractions

Recent wars have shown that enemies like Russia can jam or spoof Global Positioning System signals, turning high-tech weapons into expensive failures if they rely on satellite guidance alone.^[16]^[24] In response, the Army now insists this new projectile must survive in “GPS heavily degraded” conditions and include at least one mode that does not use GPS at all.^[21] General Atomics says its shell carries “advanced redundant guidance systems,” meaning backup navigation so the round can still home in when space-based signals are under attack.^[20]

Older precision rounds such as the Excalibur shell proved that guided artillery can land within a few meters of the aim point, but they also showed how vulnerable pure GPS guidance can be when facing major powers.^[16]^[25] By demanding non-GPS targeting and target-seeking behavior, the new program tries to fix that weakness instead of relying on the same fragile tech. For a conservative audience tired of money thrown at diversity trainings and climate games in uniform, this is the kind of nuts-and-bolts warfighting upgrade that actually protects American lives and deters war.

From “Miracle Rounds” To Real Combat Power Under Trump’s Second Term

For years, Pentagon officials chased long-range artillery mainly by building bigger and more complex guns, including the Extended Range Cannon Artillery system that used a huge barrel and special charges to fire guided shells out past forty and even sixty miles in tests.^[11]^[24] That gun program was later canceled after engineering headaches, cost, and questions about long-term reliability. The lesson from those efforts was blunt: it is often smarter and cheaper to improve the shell than to keep stretching the cannon itself.^[24]

The Extended Range Artillery Projectile effort reflects that shift. The Army is asking industry for rounds that plug into current and future 155 millimeter systems, fire at very high muzzle speeds, and still hit targets at seventy kilometers and beyond.^[21]^[22] Norway’s Nammo and its partners have even shown ramjet-powered designs that could eventually reach ninety miles, turning a simple howitzer into a deep-strike tool in the right conditions.^[5]^[8] Under Trump’s second term, the pressure is now on to field what works, cut what does not, and stop letting bureaucracy drag these programs out for decades while China and Russia move faster.

Production, Allies, And The Risk Of Another Overhyped Promise

Recent combat in Ukraine and Israel proved how quickly modern wars burn through 155 millimeter ammunition and how dangerous it is to rely on thin stockpiles.^[8] The Army has been racing to increase shell body production, awarding new contracts to American plants in Ohio and Texas so lines can surge when needed.^[3] At the same time, it has turned to allies’ designs, such as the European Vulcano family, to fast-track long-range precision shells that can already reach over seventy kilometers with advanced seekers and backup laser guidance.^[5]^[7]

Conservatives should welcome this focus on range and lethality but stay clear-eyed about the track record. Many past “game changing” rounds hit record distances in one or two carefully staged tests, then never reached the field in real numbers or with the same performance. Public reporting on the Yuma 74-mile shot still comes mainly from company claims and media summaries, not full Army test data.^[2]^[4] Until the shell survives repeated trials, harsh weather, and real electronic attack, it is a promising step—not yet a proven battlefield workhorse.