Elbit America and Anduril team up on the Sigma 155 for US Army's new SPH-M howitzer competition.

Elbit America and Anduril have teamed to offer the Sigma 155 wheeled self-propelled howitzer for the U.S. Army’s SPH-M competition, a move announced on June 2, 2026, that positions a combat-proven artillery system with advanced digital networking capabilities just weeks before the Army selects its next-generation gun platform. The partnership matters because it combines long-range firepower already in operational service with the sensor integration, automation, and rapid targeting architecture the Army increasingly views as essential for surviving and fighting on modern battlefields.

Built around Elbit’s Sigma 155, an automated 155 mm/L52 howitzer mounted on an Oshkosh 10×10 chassis, the system delivers high mobility, reduced crew requirements, rapid shoot-and-scoot operations, and engagement ranges that align with Army objectives while using existing NATO-standard ammunition. Anduril’s command-and-control and edge-computing technologies add a networked warfare dimension designed to shorten sensor-to-shooter timelines, reflecting a broader shift toward highly connected artillery forces capable of responding faster to drone-driven and precision-guided threats.

Related topic: Elbit America presents new Sigma howitzer to US Army for striking targets up to 80 km away

The partnership combines Elbit America's Sigma 155 mm wheeled self-propelled howitzer system, mounted on an Oshkosh Defense 10×10 chassis, with Anduril's autonomy software. (Picture source: Elbit America)

On June 2, 2026, Elbit America and Anduril announced a teaming agreement for the U.S. Army's Self-Propelled Howitzer Modernization (SPH-M) competition, combining Elbit America's Sigma 155 mm wheeled self-propelled howitzer, Oshkosh Defense's 10×10 vehicle, and Anduril's command-and-control, C5ISR, autonomy, and edge-computing capabilities. The announcement came less than one month before the Army's planned July 2026 contract award, placing the partnership in the final phase of a procurement effort intended to address a capability gap that has persisted for decades.

The SPH-M is the Army's fourth major attempt since the 1990s to replace or supplement the M109 after the cancellation of the Crusader in 2002, Non-Line-of-Sight Cannon in 2009, and Extended Range Cannon Artillery (ERCA) in April 2024. Unlike those previous efforts, the current competition is focused on howitzers that already exist. The Israel Defense Forces already accepted the first Ro'em systems, the Israeli designation for Sigma, in December 2025, and conducted the first combat missions in southern Lebanon during April 2026. The Elbit-Anduril proposal, therefore, combines an artillery system already in military service with additional digital architecture intended to satisfy the Army's growing emphasis on network integration, sensor connectivity, and automation. 

The origins of the SPH-M are directly linked to the U.S. Army's inability to field a successor to the M109 despite more than thirty years of modernization efforts. The M109 entered U.S. service in 1963 and remains the Army's primary self-propelled artillery system after six decades of upgrades. The XM2001 Crusader was intended to provide higher rates of fire, greater automation, and improved protection, but was cancelled in May 2002 before entering service. The Non-Line-of-Sight Cannon followed as part of the Future Combat Systems program but disappeared when that initiative was terminated in 2009. The most recent effort, the ERCA, sought to increase artillery reach from approximately 30 km to 70 km through a new 155 mm/L58 cannon mounted on modified M109 hulls.

The ERCA demonstrated that objective during live-fire testing, successfully engaging targets at 70 km with M982 Excalibur rounds. However, achieving that performance required a longer 58-caliber gun that experienced rapid tube wear and generated sustainment concerns. Barrel life, maintenance requirements, and long-term operating costs emerged as major constraints, and by April 2024, the Army ended ERCA and shifted toward procuring mature artillery systems already available from industry, many of which are already in production and operational service. The U.S. Army objectives call for fire engagement ranges between 50 and 70 km while maintaining compatibility with existing U.S. Army 155 mm ammunition inventories.

The future system must support Armored Brigade Combat Teams operating alongside Abrams tanks and Bradley infantry fighting vehicles, requiring sufficient mobility to accompany heavy maneuver formations. The Army has deliberately left both tracked and wheeled solutions eligible for selection, as tracked howitzers generally offer better mobility in soft ground and closer integration with armored formations, while wheeled howitzers offer lower operating costs, reduced maintenance requirements, and greater road mobility. Survivability has become equally important, as modern counter-battery radars can rapidly identify firing locations, while reconnaissance drones can maintain near-continuous surveillance of artillery positions.

As a result, reducing the time required to move into position, conduct a fire mission, and relocate has become a core requirement. The Army's conventional fires study, completed in 2024, prioritized automation, reduced crew size, and mobility, while SPH-M demonstration contracts awarded in October 2024 to five industry teams marked the beginning of the competition. The Sigma's configuration reflects many of those priorities. The howitzer combines a 155 mm/L52 cannon with an Oshkosh 10×10 chassis and has a vehicle weight of approximately 36 tonnes. Maximum road speed reaches between 80 and 90 km/h, significantly higher than most tracked self-propelled artillery systems.

The vehicle carries forty complete rounds and sustains a firing rate of eight rounds per minute, while the 155 mm/L52 gun is installed in a fully automated turret capable of 360-degree traverse, allowing major changes in firing direction without repositioning the vehicle. This differentiates the Sigma from several truck-mounted artillery systems that rely on limited firing arcs. Ammunition selection, fuze setting, loading, and gun laying are automated, enabling all firing operations to be conducted from inside the armored cabin. Hydraulic stabilizers are deployed before firing and retracted before movement, meaning that the transition from movement to firing position takes less than sixty seconds, and displacement can occur immediately after mission completion.

In modern warfare saturated by drones, counter-battery radars, and precision-guided munitions, the ability to fire and relocate quickly often determines whether an artillery unit remains operational. The howitzer's automation architecture is intended to reduce crew requirements by more than half compared with current U.S. Army artillery units. The Sigma operates with a crew of three consisting of a commander, gunner, and driver, while current M109 operations generally require six to eight personnel. Automated ammunition handling removes the need for dedicated loaders and eliminates much of the manual labor traditionally associated with artillery operations.

A battalion structured around three-person crews requires fewer soldiers, fewer training positions, and fewer sustainment resources than a comparable formation using M109 howitzers. Exposure during firing operations is also reduced because crew members remain inside the armored cabin rather than working outside the vehicle during loading and gun-laying procedures. The Sigma incorporates inertial navigation systems, GPS positioning, digital fire control software, and automated targeting functions, allowing independent operation without external alignment support.

The broader significance is that automation is no longer being treated as a method for increasing firing rates alone: it is increasingly being used to reduce personnel requirements, improve survivability, and simplify force generation at a time when armies face manpower constraints and growing operational demands. Range performance remains one of the central evaluation criteria under SPH-M, and the Sigma was designed around the same operational envelope the U.S. Army pursued through ERCA. Standard ammunition provides engagement distances exceeding 40 km, while extended-range ammunition can reportedly increase that figure to as much as 80 km depending on projectile type.

Unlike the ERCA, the Sigma achieves these ranges with a 52-caliber barrel rather than a 58-caliber system. This distinction is important because the Army's experience with ERCA demonstrated that greater range alone does not justify increased sustainment burden. The Sigma supports Multiple Round Simultaneous Impact (MRSI) missions, allowing multiple projectiles fired on different trajectories to arrive on target at nearly the same moment. The vehicle's onboard ammunition supply of forty rounds enables prolonged firing activity before immediate resupply becomes necessary. Compatibility with NATO-standard 155 mm ammunition means the system can employ existing Army projectile inventories, including precision-guided munitions.

The Army's desired range objective of 50 to 70 km places the Sigma directly within the required performance band. More importantly, it does so while relying on an artillery architecture already fielded by an operational military user rather than an experimental configuration still undergoing development. The addition of Anduril introduces a second dimension to the competition that extends beyond artillery performance. Elbit selected the company to provide command-and-control integration, C5ISR functions, edge-computing capabilities, and autonomy software. Future Sigma variants are therefore expected to integrate Anduril's Lattice operating environment, creating a common software architecture linking artillery systems to sensors and command networks.

Recent conflicts have demonstrated that artillery effectiveness increasingly depends on how quickly targeting information moves from sensor to firing unit. In Ukraine, artillery formations routinely rely on drone reconnaissance, digital fire control networks, and compressed sensor-to-shooter timelines to engage fleeting targets. Similar dynamics have emerged in Gaza and during the 2026 Iran War. Under those conditions, artillery performance is influenced not only by ballistic characteristics but also by how rapidly the system can receive, process, and execute targeting information. The Elbit-Anduril partnership, therefore, addresses a requirement that extends beyond the cannon itself within a larger battlefield network. 

As the U.S. Army decided to evaluate mature international designs, Hanwha Defense USA is offering the K9 family, one of the most widely exported self-propelled artillery systems currently in service, with operators across Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. Rheinmetall, for its part, is promoting the RCH-155, which combines the Artillery Gun Module with a wheeled carrier vehicle and emphasizes high levels of automation. KNDS and Leonardo DRS are offering a CAESAr-derived solution based on a system extensively employed in Ukraine. BAE Systems, for its part, is pursuing options derived from Archer and upgraded M109 configurations.

General Dynamics Land Systems is proposing a 10×10 SPH-M concept sharing characteristics with the Grizzly LAV and Piranha Heavy Mission Carrier. Excalibur Army's Morana 155 mm system has also been examined during the Army's evaluation of available artillery solutions. Most competitors have adapted their proposals to emphasize domestic production and U.S.-based assembly despite foreign design origins. The final decision is unlikely to be determined by range alone, as the U.S. Army must balance range, automation, crew size, protection, mobility, sustainment burden, production readiness, ammunition compatibility and network integration.

Written by Jérôme Brahy

Jérôme Brahy is a defense analyst and documentalist at Army Recognition. He specializes in naval modernization, aviation, drones, armored vehicles, and artillery, with a focus on strategic developments in the United States, China, Ukraine, Russia, Türkiye, and Belgium. His analyses go beyond the facts, providing context, identifying key actors, and explaining why defense news matters on a global scale.

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