The Excalibur Program Office April 3 said it transitioned to Increment Ib production and heads toward a summer decision on full-rate production, now that it has completed assembly of the last Increment Ia-2 projectile, officials with Program Executive Office (PEO) Ammunition and Raytheon [RTN] said.
Developer Raytheon, meanwhile, is working on some Excalibur advances.
Photo: U.S. Army
First fielded in 2007, Excalibur is the Army’s GPS-guided, precision 155 mm artillery projectile. It couples GPS technology with an inertial measurement unit (IMU) to provide accurate, first-round fire-for-effect capability in an urban setting with accuracy better than 4 meters Circular Error Probable (CEP).
“The successful transition from Excalibur Increment Ia-2 to Ib production is a significant step in the lifecycle of the program,” said Lt. Col. Joshua Walsh, Product Manager Excalibur with PEO Ammunition. “This new capability provides the Warfighter with increased accuracy and reliability at a reduced cost.”
The production milestone marks eight years of Raytheon production and assembly at the McAlester Army Ammunition Plant in McAlester, Okla.
The Ib program did “extremely well” in milestone events over the past several months, said Paul Daniels, Excalibur business development lead for Raytheon Missile Systems, in an interview with Defense Daily.
The first milestone was the First Article Test for Ib in December to check production readiness. Additionally, the Ib did “exceptionally well” in its initial operational test and evaluation with an artillery unit from Ft. Riley, Kan., which conducted the tests at Yuma Proving Ground, Ariz. The customer was “very pleased,” Daniels said.
Those milestones lead toward an Army Ib review this summer that is expected to result in a decision about full-rate production.
The round is performing well, with a miss distance of less than two meters, independent of range, he said. Another advantage the Ib offers is that it can fire intentionally off target–to disperse adversaries or to shoot around a town or airfield.
“From a pure operational standpoint, the mission, the Ib achieves the desired effects on the first shot,” Daniels said. That amounts to organic precision strike for the Army and Marines.
Excalibur’s capabilities have led it to be called the “world’s longest range sniper weapon,” Daniels said.
With a howitzer part of the organization, and Excalibur’s first round effects, it offers precision strike, he said, offering examples such as shooting down a well that was used as a weapons cache, and destroying a footbridge as IEDs were being emplaced.
The Army does have a moving target engagement requirement for artillery that it has not been able to fill, and new Excalibur capabilities beyond Ib could offer the solution. Raytheon is developing this on its own internal research and development (IR&D) funds.
Raytheon plans a live fire demonstration in a few weeks for what it calls “Excalibur S,” Daniels said. It keeps the GPS guidance capabilities of Ib, “but we’re adding a laser spot tracker.”
Laser designators are abundant in the force, he said. Laser designation can give a precise target location if GPS is degraded for some reason. Also, if the target moves from its initial location, laser designators can adjust or change the target area, or divert the shell to a safe location.
There also is a lot of interest internationally in this advance, he said.
Raytheon has used similar technology on other weapon systems and reusing it for Excalibur S is another way to adjust to fiscal restraints and keep costs to customers down.
Additionally, Raytheon is developing a version for the Navy it calls the N5, and plans live fire tests by November or December, Daniels said.
The Navy wants extended range precision gunfire and, again, Raytheon is using its own (IR&D) funds to develop the projectile.
Navy 5-inch guns shoot conventional munitions, Daniels said. Since Excalibur is already the right size for the 5-inch gun, “the entire guidance and navigational unit on the front end of the Excalibur Ib can be reused for the Navy variant.”
Daniels said, “We see an opportunity to capitalize on all the research and development on all the expenditures the Army has put into it, and capital in it.”
More than 6,591 Excalibur Increment Ia rounds have been delivered to the Army, Marines, and several international customers. To date, more than 750 rounds have been fired in combat.