PARIS – Sweden has committed to buying more Archer 155 mm mobile howitzers from BAE Systems, after signing a letter of intent at the Paris-based defense exhibition Eurosatory this week.

The Swedish Defense Materiel Administration and BAE Systems Bofors took the first step in establishing another artillery battalion in line with Sweden’s defense strategy, which runs until 2025.

Mikael Frisell, head of the Swedish administration, and Lena Gillström, CEO of the BAE organization, signed the letter in front of the Archer vehicle on display in the company’s stand.

Sweden is the first customer to buy Archer, and BAE has recently delivered the first 48 Archer vehicles to the Swedish army. The system has been around for five years.

At the same time, Archer was chosen as one of two challengers in a competition for a new mobile howitzer in Switzerland last week. The second challenger was not announced. The country is considering replacing its aging howitzers, which are based on the M109 platform.

The U.S. military also evaluated Archer a year ago at Yuma Proving Ground, New Mexico, in an attempt to identify 155mm mobile howitzers off the shelf to meet an urgent operational need outside Europe.

The service also looked at Nexter’s six-wheel drive Caesar howitzers, Elbit Systems of America’s Autonomous Truck Mounted Ordnance System Iron Saber and a system from Serbia’s Yugoimport.

After the evaluation, the army is said to have chosen down to two systems from that pool, but put a pause in the effort as it continues to evaluate what mix of modernized artillery it would like as part of the future force. The service has not applied for funding for a program to acquire 155 mm mobile howitzers at present and is focused on the development and field of a cannon artillery system with extended range as a priority.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, BAE Systems has seen an increase in requests for the Archer system in recent months, according to Mark Signorelli, the company’s vice president of platforms and services.