Don Nickles: “What is most important is we provide our men and women in the military, in any branch, in any division, with quality…”

“What is most important is we provide our men and women in the military, in any branch, in any division, with quality equipment, equal to or superior to our competitors. I hate to say this, but it happens to be factual. We are not superior to our adversaries or potential adversaries when it comes to artillery. Fort Sill is the home of the artillery training base for the Army. A couple of weeks ago I visited the base, as I have done several times. I sat in the Paladin, our latest artillery weapon, and fired it with our men and women who were operating the cannon. I realized and was embarrassed at how obsolete it is. The chassis, the basic framework of the wheeled vehicle that they were using, was built in the early 1960s. The cannon was also loaded exactly as it was in the early 1960s. In fact, the cannon is loaded the same way Napoleon was loading cannons. I was surprised, dismayed, and more than convinced we need to upgrade the system. The Crusader serves as an update that modernizes the system.”