Leonardo contracts with United Kingdom and Italy to Enhance Precision of Artillery.

On May 20, 2024, Leonardo secured new contracts with the Ministries of Defence of the UK and Italy to enhance the precision capabilities of their artillery systems through the deployment of the LINAPS artillery pointing system.
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LINAPS systems enhance the precision of artillery. (Picture source: Leonardo)

As part of one contract, the Italian Ministry of Defence ordered 39 LINAPS systems to equip its Army's FH70 towed howitzers, thus enhancing their precision fire capabilities. This initiative marks a significant upgrade for the Italian artillery units, ensuring improved accuracy and operational efficiency.

Simultaneously, the UK's Ministry of Defence, through its Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S) organization, signed a support contract with Leonardo. This contract aims to maintain the operational readiness of LINAPS on the UK's L118 light guns, extending their operational capability through to their planned out-of-service date in 2030.

Designed and manufactured at Leonardo's Edinburgh site, LINAPS is reputed as the standard in artillery pointing systems. It is currently in service with the armed forces of numerous countries, including the UK, Italy, Poland, Canada, New Zealand, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Malaysia, Thailand, and India.

The LINAPS system, installed on the British Army's L118 light gun, has proven its effectiveness in various operations, including Operation Iraqi Freedom and missions in Afghanistan with the Canadian M777 howitzer. The core of LINAPS is the FIN3110 module (or FIN3210, depending on the variant), which provides critical orientation and position data for gun laying and navigation, ensuring pinpoint firing accuracy.

In the future, data-generating sensors like the FIN3120 will play a key role in Leonardo's strategy for a more connected battlespace. This approach involves multi-domain integration, leveraging the company's expertise in secure cloud technologies, data, and analytics to enhance decision-making processes.

By integrating sensors and products across different domains and optimizing data usage, Leonardo aims to augment human decision-making capabilities, enabling faster and more accurate operational decisions. It remains to be seen how this new system will be received by the Italian and British forces.