Israeli Armor: Elbit chosen to supply Israel's future SPH

In an unsurprising move, Elbit was selected as the winner in the "tender" for the IDF's future Self Propelled Howitzer. After a decade of debate, development of a custom built howitzer is now underway.

This follows months of analysis of alternatives by MAFAT (Research and Development Agency), and consultations with all relevant bodies.

Despite Elbit's victory not surprising anyone, it does appear odd that the winner, Elbit, is the only one in the tender to not actually present a functional system. At least not in the required configuration.

Its ATMOS 2000 has been used by numerous countries and trialed in Israel where it fired several thousand rounds already. But the new configuration it offers to the IDF is said to be completely untested.

The ATMOS 2000 in Elbit's portfolio is a modern and capable system, but is built for export and thus not optimal for IDF's needs. Therefore, it is speculated that the IDF requested the ATMOS's systems and subsystems (e.g gun, GPS, laying system, sensors, FCS) to be transferred to another, existing platform, supposedly a Merkava chassis.

The Merkava has been the basis for a wide family of vehicles due to its naturally flexible construction, including a prototype howitzer before.

Another alternative to the Merkava chassis, which was said to be considered, is the M270's chassis. This would allow the IDF to utilize aid money to purchase parts of the SPH and would create a commonality within the artillery corps, as the supply vehicles and MLRS utilize the same chassis.
KMW+IAI proposed the AGM (Artillery Gun Module) that follows this principle, however such decision would be short-sighted, as the supply vehicles are also becoming outdated, and the MLRS could be mounted on the IDF's recently acquired FMTV trucks, utilizing the Lynx architecture by IMI. Effectively creating a HIMARS equivalent.