A tender launched by MoND in early ‘o7 to meet an urgent 155mm/52 Calibre artillery round requirement of the TLF has recently been concluded with the selection of a South Korean POONGSAN company. The company will provide 2,7oo High Explosive [HE] and 4,2oo Cargo projectiles with modular charges to facilitate range extensions under the US$50 Million contract. For maximum range, each round will be equipped with six modular charges, meaning a total of 41,4oo [6,9oo x 6] modular charges will be procured.  
Sources reveal to TD&A Update that POONGSAN’s 155mm/52 Calibre artillery rounds and charge modules are not compliant with the Joint Ballistic Memorandum of Understanding [MoU] and have 2.5% dud rate. The tender document originally specified a less than 1% dud rate, but this requirement was later removed from the RfP. This meant that US company L-3’s bid, valued at US$8o Million, which had a dud rate lower than 1%, became less economically viable. The ‘dud rate’ is the percentage of deployed submunitions [bomblets] that fail to explode when deployed.
According to the tender document, both the HE and Cargo rounds will be procured from the same source and deliveries should be completed in eight months. The winning company will also provide the related Firing Tables for the HE/KE rounds. The tender document [RfP] has been purchased by 23 companies, and on June 4, ‘o7 the proposals for the Cargo rounds were opened by MoND.
The 155mm 52 Cal HE and Cargo rounds will be used on the T-155 Fırtına self-propelled and Panther towed howitzers in the service of the TLF. The Extended Range Cargo munitions are expected to be equipped with a self-destruct type of fuse.