Kongsberg Defence Australia has shown off its Odin Fire Support System which will equip the AS9 Huntsman self-propelled howitzers being proposed for the Australian Army’s LAND 8116 Phase 1 Protected Mobility Fires requirement.

Allowing precision fires at ranges beyond 50 kilometres, this is a simple intuitive touch screen system which takes target information from the forward observer, through the fire direction centre to the guns themselves.

Kongsberg Defence Australia General Manager John Fry said there were two parts –the digital backbone including the weapon control Human Machine Interface, the Integrated Combat Solution (ICS), and Odin, which performs the ballistic calculations for each fire mission.

Systems to be installed in Australia’s AS-9 Huntsman and their AS-10 armoured ammunition resupply vehicles are based on the systems developed for Norway’s Hanwha Vidar SPH.

ICS connects all sensors, C4 and communications systems and the gunnery control computer. So intuitive is this system that Norwegian Army conscripts – in uniform for just three months – were able to fire effective live-fire missions with just four weeks experience on the actual guns.

“Most Norwegian systems are designed for simplicity because they have conscripts in their army so they want to be trained quickly,” Fry told ADBR at Land forces 2021. “It’s all about using logical workflows.

“This system will require some tailoring for Australian use but essentially Australia is buying the Norwegian configuration as the baseline and growing out of that,” he added.

“There are things Australia will want in their particular system. We will interface to AFATDS (Advanced Field Artillery Tactical Data System) used by the Australian Army.”