20世纪90年代,美国开始实施“21世纪部队”计划,其核心内容是建设“数字化战场”。数字化战场将是作战空间、作战速率、作战复杂程度都大为扩展或提升的战场。在这种动态的作战环境中,火力支援必须能满足非接触、非线式作战的要求,甚至要左右整个战场的进程,以不负“战争之神”的称谓。而美国陆军目前最先进的M-109A6型“帕拉丁”155毫米自行榴弹炮,被确认为“目前美国合成部队中最为薄弱的一个环节”,在未来的数字化战场上将更加力不从心。因此五角大楼在砍掉了许多研制计划的情况下,仍然保留了“十字军战士”自行榴弹炮系统(包括XM2001 155毫米自行榴弹炮、 In the 1990s, the United States began implementing the “21st-Century Forces,” with the core of building a “digital battlefield.” The digital battlefield will be a battlefield in which combat space, combat speed and combat complexity are greatly expanded or enhanced. In such a dynamic combat environment, fire support must be able to meet the requirements of non-contact and non-line operations and even control the entire battlefield to bear the title of “God of War.” The most advanced M-109A6 “Paladin” 155mm self-propelled howitzer currently recognized by the U.S. Army as “the weakest link in the U.S. Synthetic Forces” will be even more powerless in the future digitized battlefield. As a result, the Pentagon retained its Crusader self-propelled howitzer system (including the XM2001 155mm howitzer,