Mannheim APS-2 site receives next-generation Paladin M109A7 155mm Artillery System
By Cameron Porter, 405th AFSB
The 405th Army Field Support Brigade’s Army Field Support Battalion-Mannheim received about three dozen next-generation M109A7 Paladin Artillery Systems and M992A3 Field Artillery Ammunition Support Vehicles by railhead at Coleman Barracks, March 4.
These new armored vehicles, now a part of the 405th AFSB’s Army Prepositioned Stock-2 Program at Coleman worksite, will enhance U.S. Army Europe and Africa’s readiness and capability to support the warfighter while simultaneously promoting stability and security in the region.
These enhanced self-propelled artillery systems offer key fire-support for a variety of combat missions conducted by the Army’s Armored Brigade Combat Teams in conventional, hybrid, irregular and counterinsurgency combat environments.
Jason Todd, a logistics management specialist at Coleman worksite, AFSBn-Mannheim, said the work of unloading the new self-propelled howitzers from the trains and moving them to the APS-2 site was a joint effort between multiple teams at Coleman Barracks.
“The railhead operation successfully moved the newly acquired pieces and subsequent containers in a joint effort, smoothly and effectively,” Todd said, “Project Management Self-Propelled Howitzer System personnel driving the vehicles, Amentum providing command of the railhead and support personnel for ground guiding, staging and refueling, with oversight from the AFSBn-Mannheim Coleman worksite team.”
The APS-2 site at Mannheim could not support USAREUR-AF’s readiness mission without the total team – more than 800 dedicated and highly-skilled maintainers, mechanics and staff personnel, said Thomas Esposito, the director of Coleman worksite, AFSBn-Mannheim.
Here at the Coleman worksite, AFSBn-Mannheim’s primary mission is the storage and maintenance of one ABCT’s worth of vehicles and equipment – over 500 pieces, such as M1 Abrams tanks, M2 Bradley fighting vehicles, self-propelled howitzers, staff tracked vehicles, armored personnel carriers and more, Esposito said.
“Our regular business is the maintenance and storage and accountability, thereof,” said Esposito. “We maintain this ABCT – forward – ready to issue to an active duty unit in the event of a requirement here in theater. We are also able to issue forward, as we demonstrated during DEFENDER-Europe 20.”
The 405th AFSB is assigned to U.S. Army Sustainment Command and under the operational control of the 21st Theater Sustainment Command, USAREUR-AF. The brigade is headquartered in Kaiserslautern, Germany, and provides materiel enterprise support to U.S. Forces throughout Europe and Africa – providing theater sustainment logistics; synchronizing acquisition, logistics and technology; and leveraging the U.S. Army Materiel Command materiel enterprise to support joint forces.