U.S. Army along with Picatinny Arsenal, N.J, is ready to deploy the Excalibur, a first-of-its-kind Global Positioning System-guided artillery shell, in Kuwait (Iraq). Under development for 8 years by Raytheon and 3 years by Raytheon and BAE Systems, Excalibur is going to be deployed following official results from current final-stage testing.
At the recent Association of the United States Army’s Institute of Land Warfare Winter Symposium, Raytheon program official Everett Tackett said:
In a late November U.S. Army test at Yuma Proving Ground, Ariz., (13 out of 14) Excalibur rounds fired up to 24 kilometers away hit within 10 meters of their targets, an unprecedented circular error probable for cannon artillery. Conventional artillery has a CEP of about 70 to 100 meters at 10 kilometers, 200 to 300 meters at 30 kilometers.
The Army is believed to fire Excalibur Block 1a-1 rounds from its 155mm howitzer and the latest XM 777 lightweight 155mm howitzer, which was initially grounded in October with the Army’s 2nd Battalion, 11th Field Artillery at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii.
Read
