Artillery: August 13, 2002

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France (GIAT) and Sweden (Bofors) have begun joint production of a new 155mm artillery shell known as BONUS. The French are buying 6,000, while the Swedes are buying 3,000. Both are jointly offering BONUS for export. The shell is described as "target seeking anti-tank". The theory is that artillery units could fire it into the general area of an enemy armor unit and the shell would identify a tank and steer to hit it. This would allow relatively light forces (so long as they had 155mm artillery) to survive on the armored battlefield by relying on over-the-horizon artillery to kill the tanks from a safe distance.--Stephen V Cole