A Swedish Armed Forces' highly mobile Archer Artillery System fired several rounds at a demonstration for U.S. soldiers and airmen on November 15, 2021, at Camp Atterbury, Indiana. Service members from across the country provided operational support, physical security, and force health protection enforcement during the Joint Staff sponsored Coalition Capability Demonstration and Assessment event Bold Quest 21.2 held at Camp Atterbury and Mascatatuck Urban Training Center, Indiana, Oct. 18 through Nov. 18. 2021.
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A Swedish Armed Forces' highly mobile Archer Artillery System fired several rounds at a demonstration for U.S. soldiers and airmen on November 15, 2021, at Camp Atterbury, Indiana. (Picture source: U.S. Air National Guard/Staff Sgt. Bryan Myhr)

The Archer Artillery System, or Archer - FH77BW L52, or Artillerisystem 08 is an international project aimed at developing a next-generation self-propelled gun system for Sweden and Norway. The heart of the system is a fully automated 155 mm/L52 gun howitzer and an M151 Protector remote-controlled weapon station mounted on a modified 6×6 chassis of the Volvo A30D, all-terrain articulated hauler. The vehicle cabin and engine compartment are fully armored and the cab is fitted with bullet and fragmentation-proof windows. The cabin seats up to four personnel. The howitzer is operated by three or four crew. The system also includes a munition carrier consisting of a removable, modified standard container mounted on a ballistic-proofed all-terrain lorry. The unit cost is approximately $4,500,000.

The crew and engine compartment is armored and the cab is fitted with bullet and fragmentation-resistant windows. Aside from this, the system consists of an ammunition resupply vehicle, a support vehicle, and BONUS submunition, and M982 Excalibur guided projectiles.

The vehicle carries 21 155mm projectiles in the fully automatic magazine. Reloading the magazine from the accompanying munitions carrier takes about 10 minutes using the purpose-built lifting device. The howitzer can use NATO modular charges or Bofors Uniflex 2 modular charges. The Uniflex 2IM modular charge system consists of two sizes of combustible charge cases; one full-size and one half-size case, both filled with the same type of insensitive guanylate dinitramide [fr] (GuDN) propellant. The modular charge system allows several increments of charge to be available and increases the gun system's multiple rounds simultaneous impact (MRSI) capability and good range overlap between the increments. With BAE Bofors/Nexter Bonus rounds the range is 35 km. The range of the gun is extended to 60 km with the precision-guided Raytheon/Bofors XM982 Excalibur round. The Excalibur shell is corrected in flight towards a pre-programmed trajectory by a GPS guidance system. For armored vehicles, the Bofors 155 Bonus is used.

The Swedish Army received its first four pre-serial production FH-77 BW L52 Archer systems on 23 September 2013 and the first guns finally entered service on February 1, 2016. The Norwegian government withdrew from the project in December 2013.

U.S. soldiers and airmen observe a demonstration of their Archer by the Swedish Armed Forces on Nov. 15, 2021, at Camp Atterbury, Indiana (Picture source: U.S. Air National Guard/Staff Sgt. Bryan Myhr)

The Archer's crew and engine compartment is armored and the cab is fitted with bullet and fragmentation-resistant windows (Picture source: U.S. Air National Guard/Staff Sgt. Bryan Myhr)