Colombia backs down at the last minute and opts for the Atmos instead of the Caesar

Nexter will have to keep waiting to see its Caesar 6×6 self-propelled howitzer deployed by any Latin American country.

In a decision that surprised even inside the force, the Colombian Army opted, in discount time, to acquire the Israeli Atmos 6×6 155×52 mm artillery system.

The contract, through process No. 21-2022 MDN-EJC, is valued at US$101,710,788 and involves the purchase of 18 units of the howitzer developed by Elbit Systems, a firm that must deliver all the pieces within eight years.

LAST MINUTE CHANGES

Despite the fact that after an exhaustive selection process, which included the evaluation of different proposals submitted, in which the Army concluded that the best option was the French howitzer, Nexter‘s offer was rejected at the last minute given that the French firm increased the final value of the pieces by 12%, while its two rivals -Elbit and the Turkish MKE, with its Yavuz SPHs 6×6 model- maintained their original prices.

These reasons finally led the force, motivated by the energetic insistence of two generals of the General Staff, to decide on the Atmos, a system with which three batteries (with six pieces each) of self-propelled artillery will be constituted, which will complement the two batteries of towed artillery of the GDELS 155/52 APU-SBT type that Colombia is already deploying.

ATMOS 6X6

The Israeli system consists of a 155×52-millimeter piece mounted on a Tatra Y815-VVN vehicle (315 hp V-12 diesel engine and 10-speed forward transmission), with extended range and top speeds of up to 80 kilometers per hour.

The Atmos has a range of up to 41 kilometers, with a rate -according to its manufacturer- of five shots in a minute or eighty in an hour of continuous fire. This technology, which is already operated by a dozen countries, has six servers, has a total weight of 22 tons, a length of 9.5 meters, a diameter of 2.65 meters and a height of 3.24 meters.

With information from Infodefensa