Raytheon [RTN] and the Army yesterday said they completed Initial Operational Test and Evaluation (IOT&E) for Excalibur Ib during a series of successful tests.
IOT&E is administered by the Army’s Test and Evaluation Command and performed by an active-duty artillery battalion in a tactical environment.
Raytheon May 19 said it expects the Army to announce a full-rate production decision by mid-year.
Photo: Raytheon
During IOT&E, artillerymen from Fort Riley’s 1st Battalion, 5th Field Artillery fired numerous Excalibur Ib rounds, scoring several target hits and averaging less than two meters miss distance.
“Excalibur’s performance and reliability continues to reach new levels in every test event,” said Lt. Col. Josh Walsh, Army Excalibur product manager. “This projectile is exceeding all of its key performance parameters, and the Army’s artillerymen continue to sing its praises.”
Excalibur Ib is the newest variant of the 155mm GPS-guided projectile.
Michelle Lohmeier, vice president of Raytheon Missile Systems’ Land Warfare Systems product line, said: “It is an excellent example of a government-industry team working together to put a critical capability into the hands of our warfighters.”
Raytheon is also funding a program to augment the combat-proven Excalibur with a laser spot tracker (LST), giving the weapon a dual-mode GPS/LST guidance capability.
The company plans a live-fire demonstration of Excalibur S this year. Laser guidance will mitigate target location error, enable attack of mobile targets, and can ensure precision effects when GPS is either degraded or denied.
The LST can also be incorporated into the 5-inch Excalibur naval variant the company is also developing. Excalibur N5 will use the same guidance and navigation unit produced for the Ib. Raytheon is planning a live fire demonstration of Excalibur N5 later this year.
To date, nearly 750 Excalibur rounds have been fired in combat
Excalibur is a cooperative program between Raytheon and BAE Systems Bofors.