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| Elbit's ATMOS - The artillery piece intended for the IDF will be fundamentally different, and Elbit refused to show the prototype to the public. |
Elbit's howitzer was said to have been demonstrated and tested twice at least. Once a month ago, and the other 2 weeks ago. The demonstration in the past month was said to be very successful, but we do not yet know how much of the system's capabilities were demonstrated, and whether or not certain parts were left out for later tests.
What we do know is that in at least one occasion, the automatic loading system has failed, and led to halting the demonstration.
Sources inform "Globes" that the trial of the new ATMOS cannon selected by the Ministry of Defense at the end of a controversial procedure was halted. Some of the capabilities of its automatic loading system were not demonstrated at all to representatives of the Ministry of Defense Administration for the Development of Weapons and Technological Infrastructure and IDF artillery corps officers.
This is not something extraordinary. Things like this happen, especially in the rather short schedule Elbit is working on.
Elbit failed to comment on the issue, but a "source" in the IDF relevant to this topic has said the issue has been fixed.
Something else, however, is disturbing - the IDF has yet to showcase the new artillery piece.
The Eitan, Namer + CEV, Carmel, were all shown to the public in one way or another before testing begun (in case of the Carmel, a 3D render). The Eitan's first prototype was built about a year before it was shown, but even then it was defined to the public in an appropriate way.
The ATMOS is not so much. Actually, we can't really call it an ATMOS, because we know it will be fundamentally different and acquire a Hebrew name, but we don't know just HOW different it will be.
It could be based on a truck. It could be based on an Eitan, or it could be based on the Namer (a hybrid of the Merkava 4 and 3). It could even be based on an independent and specially designed platform like the Rascal was, for all we know.
But what this means is probably that the IDF itself doesn't yet know what they want from this new howitzer other than the parameters they set for the turret.
Strangely, Elbit are also declining to show the turret prototype, and have maintained this stance since at least April when it was acknowledged a prototype was already built.
Source
http://www.globes.co.il/en/article-elbit-atmos-artillery-performs-disappointingly-in-trial-1001203583
