U.S. Army Awards Raytheon a $22 Million Contract for Excalibur Early Fielding

TUCSON, Ariz., June 28, 2005 /PRNewswire/ -- The U.S. Army awarded
Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN) a $22.1 million contract for initial production
and early fielding of Excalibur, a cooperative effort between Raytheon Missile
Systems and Bofors Defence of Sweden.
Excalibur is an artillery projectile that uses satellite guidance to
provide precision accuracy at extended ranges for all current and future 155mm
howitzers.
Raytheon will provide Excalibur projectiles, testing, manufacturing
tooling, test and inspection equipment, projectile shipping/storage
containers, and training support necessary to provide initial capability to
the Army in fiscal year 2006, more than 3 years ahead of when full operational
capability will be achieved.
Excalibur will conclude developmental testing, and the first production
rounds will be delivered by the end of 2005. The Excalibur rounds will be
delivered as part of a system which includes an AFATDS (Advanced Field
Artillery Tactical Data System) update for Excalibur and approximately 14
stand-alone fuze setters to be fielded to Paladin units serving in Iraq.
Excalibur will also be compatible with the Army and Marine M777 light weight
howitzer. The Marines have recently begun M777 fielding, and the U.S. Army
will field M777 next year in conjunction with forming the Stryker Brigade of
the 25th Infantry Division

link


Is this weapon system another name for the ERGM (exteneded range guided munition)? Also what do you think of these kinds of projects?

[edit on 10-7-2005 by blue cell]

I don't know what all the "Excalibur" contract entails, but the technology being developed here is a means to increase the accuracy of artillery by making course corrections to inflight rounds based upon GPS data.

Initial tests of technology prototypes show that average accuracy can be improved from somewhere in the range of 150 meters to somewhere in the range of 50 meters. See below for added info:

www.raytheon.com...


[edit on 10-7-2005 by Astronomer68]

what does the m777 look like?

Originally posted by Char2c35t
what does the m777 look like?

30 seconds, Google Images:

info on ADVANCED FIELD ARTILLERY TACTICAL DATA SYSTEM (AFATDS) \
Just if anybody was wondering how this system works, there is a link. This system works together with the Excalibur.