 For those who may have been wondering what that was in my personal space image there on the right.
XM982 Excalibur
Precision Guided Extended Range Artillery Projectile
The Excalibur 155mm Precision Guided Extended Range Artillery Projectile, also known as the M982 ER DPICM (Extended Range Dual Purpose Improved Conventional Munitions) Projectile, is the Army`s fire and forget, smart munition. It provides capability to attack all three key target sets, soft and armored vehicles, and reinforced bunkers, out to ranges exceeding current 155mm family of artillery munitions. Because of its accuracy and increased effectiveness, Excalibur reduces the logistical burden for deployed ground forces. It also provides lower collateral damage through its concentrated fragmentation pattern, increased precision and near-vertical descent.
Excalibur is a family of precision-guided, extended-range modular projectiles incorporating three unique payload capabilities divided into Block configurations. Block I consists of high-explosive, fragmenting, or penetrating unitary munitions to enhance traditional fire support operations with increased range, improved accuracy, and reduced collateral damage against personnel, light materiel, and structure targets. Block II consists of smart munitions to search, detect, acquire, and engage fleeting and short-dwell targets common to open-terrain battlefields. Block III consists of discriminating munitions to selectively identify and engage individual vehicular targets in urban environments by distinguishing specific target characteristics. Excalibur`s precision capabilities are intended to be used by Future Combat System (FCS) Non-Line-of-Sight (NLOS) Cannon units to provide close support to maneuver units in urban or complex terrain. Digitized lightweight 155mm howitzer systems will be used to develop and test Excalibur`s capabilities before FCS NLOS Cannon is fielded.
The Excalibur development team combines U.S. guidance expertise with Swedish airframe experience. The projectile will employ Global Positioning System (GPS)-aided inertial guidance and navigation, free spinning base fins, four-axis canard airframe control, base bleed technology, and a trajectory glide to achieve increased accuracy and extended ranges beyond 30 km. The FCS NLOS Cannon will incorporate an inductive fuze setter to transfer target and fuze data to the integral fuze.
The Army initially planned to field the munition in 2006.
The Army plans to extend the range and accuracy of the M-109 Paladin SPH by adapting it to fire the Excalibur. This would extend the Paladin`s range by 30 percent. It would improve accuracy by reducing dispersion from 370 meters for traditional artillery projectiles to 10 meters for Excalibur. The Excalibur also can be used both by the M-198 155mm howitzer currently employed by the Army and Marines, and by the XM-777 lightweight 155 mm gun that the services are considering as a replacement.
Following the cancellation of the Crusader, developmental work on the Excalibur projectiles that was being developed for Crusader will be reoriented toward FCS NLOS. This will require an adaptation to Excalibur, because it is not possible to take this large caliber round and convert it automatically for a smaller-caliber gun. All three payloads planned for Excalibur -- dual-purpose improved conventional munitions, sensor-fuzed munitions, and a unitary warhead -- will find use in NLOS, as will its GPS guidance system.
The XM982 Extended Range Projectile is jointly developed by Raytheon TI Systems` [RTIS] (Guidance and navigation systems), Primex (Projectile design and manufacturing), and KDI (Fuzing) to deliver a state-of-the-art, high performance, extended range weapon which will result in substantial savings to the U.S. Army. Weapons to be equipped include the towed M198 and XM777 (Joint Light Weight), and the M109A6 Paladin and XM2001 Crusader self-propelled howitzers (SPHs).
The projective features include:
-Low cost per kill.
-Survivability is increased by allowing greater stand-off from threats and faster defeat of potential threats.
-Extended Range 155mm Artillery Projectile. Nonballistic flight path. Achieves a range of at least 37km when fired from 39-caliber howitzers. Achieves a range of at least 47km when fired from the 52-caliber ordnance fitted to the XM2001 Crusader.
-Fire-and-Forget GPS/INS (global positioning system/inertial navagation system) Guidance.
-Modular Payload 64 XM85 DPICMs 2 SADARMs (Sense and Destroy Armor)
-Unitary Modular Design XM982 has the same guidance and tail sections for all three warhead options. Also uses the same technology with the GPS receiver and guidance package that is used on the XM171 ERGM Program.
|
