US Army’s XM982 Excalibur - VIDEO !! - Impressive

ABOVE Video still of the test video. The test was against a simulated insurgent mortar postion 20 km away.

WMV VIDEO 5.5 MB
VIDEO MPG Format 10MB - better quality

EXCALIBUR, XM982 PROGRAM pdf format
Raytheon news

The US Army is accelerating the fielding of the GPS-guided XM982 Excalibur 155 mm artillery projectile and is expecting to introduce the weapon into service two years earlier than originally planned.

Excalibur is a joint effort between Raytheon Missile Systems and Bofors Defence of Sweden.

In response to an Urgent Need Statement from US Army elements within US Central Command, Raytheon received a 21 June contract award for testing, safety certification and initial fielding of the satellite-guided projectiles by March 2006. Initial fielding had been planned for the fourth quarter of Fiscal Year 2008 (FY08).

According to Lieutenant Colonel William Cole, US Army product manger for the XM982 Excalibur Projectile, the decision to accelerate Excalibur fielding was supported by successful field testing conducted in late 2004. In one November 2004 firing at a range of 20 km, the round impacted 3.4 m from the aim point. One month later another round impacted 6.9 m from the target at a similar range
Jane's Defence

[edit on 30-1-2006 by mad scientist]

yeah just in time before the invasion of iran

Originally posted by Char2c35t
yeah just in time before the invasion of iran

I sure hope so.........j/k. But I have to ask why you would make a comment such as yours? It has nothing to do with the topic at hand.

Mad Scientist,

>>
Video still of the test video. The test was against a simulated insurgent mortar postion 20 km away.
>>

A little heavy on the airburst for a collaterals dense target zone. I would also like to know if they can tailor the parabolic arc to allow for high loft (plunging) shots into built up areas or if the weapon kinematics/aerosurface deployment inhibit some kinds of firing.

The .pdf also shows two cluster and one unitary round which is a little disappointing because it doesn't really allow for things like a generic-cannister option (Smoke, CS, flares, Silent Eyes etc.) all of which can be equally if not /more/ important when hunting bad guys at range in a generally confused environment.

Infantry can always call for smoke, either in assault or retreat. Frag is not always an option and cluster bus is most often not, in MOUT.

Even if HE is available for the mission, often there is a total disconnect with targeting as anything more than 'building to my north!'. But if they can mark it and you can see it, you can correct fire within a single round (one of the nice things about Copperhead, provided you had the codes set). Which may be important if these things cost 50,000 dollars a round as I've heard.

More importantly, this is a step back towards heavy maneuver systems and inflexible fires. Which is okay, I guess, if you are talking about a 5-6" gun on a DDG. And even in the current nastiness of fighting yet another COIN war.

But what happens when your 'objective force' has only towed 155's and they are doing a forced entry op against a _real_ enemy with SPH? Even if you don't lose the 'my barrel is longer than yours!' war on caliber, you may find that you are facing a shoot and scoot threat which simply doesn't need to be where your fancy little GPS round is TOF splashing down.

And you may be hard pressed to keep up with your maneuver elements who are 'proceding fast' over a horizon you just set up behind.

For most anti-barbarian missions, the 105 is perfectly adequate as standoff and a lot more easy to firebase emplace in crosscoverage of vulnerable/masked areas.

For mobile campaigns, you cannot afford to play with towed systems (they can't keep up and they put their crews at /incredible/ risk).

Which is why underhorizon and multishot-light systems with loitering battlefield recce are more preferrable, even if they are expensive. Netfires is the only such option that comes close, IMO, to matching what the Army needs in a hummer/RSTV-draggable OTH capability. The Israeli Spike-ER comes close. And of course there are 2-3 Euro/Brazillian (Polyphem and FOG-MPM) which I also believe are 'more honest' in what they advertise and the threat that _will_ exist, whether we buy into it or not.

Not least because they are all getting up towards 60-70km ranges and that can challenge even long-barrel 155's on a mobile chassis (WFOV optics on a seekered downside).

CONCLUSION:
The BEST option, at least for now, is 10-20 Viper or JCM type weapons on an ERMP (or Predator B as it really ought to be). Because that lets you see the picture and support your troops on a continual 10-20 second (if not /preemptive/) response basis without having to commit to logistics forward ops with conventional FSB support tactics.

Past that and it's all bandaid.


KPl.

Originally posted by jetsetter

Originally posted by Char2c35t
yeah just in time before the invasion of iran

I sure hope so.........j/k. But I have to ask why you would make a comment such as yours? It has nothing to do with the topic at hand.

look at why the sped up the production? why would they do is unless they have plans to use it or they would just let it come out on its original date. This are the type of weapons that would be most useful when fighting a real military like Iran, Bush and Isreal seem hell bent on attacking Iran so they ordered the weapon system to be putinto production before they invade Iran. So my comment has everything to do witht he topic!

Originally posted by ch1466Even if HE is available for the mission, often there is a total disconnect with targeting as anything more than 'building to my north!'.
KPl.

What the heck is a COIN war?

The Army is putting a lot of effort into giving it's troops GPS on an individual soldier basis, and even going so far as to try and rig it up with the laser rangefinders on thier personal weapons. (Smart-soldier and next generation personal weapons have thier own threads around here somewhere...) Anyhow, if your soldier calling for some fire support pops his weapon around the corner and can subsequently call for fire on the building 21.45 M to my 347', or GPS X.xx,Y.yy, then it's useful.

Towed artillery has it's limitations in offensive operations, which is why self-mobile artillery systems like the Paladin and Crusader are so very nice to have. Forcing one's enemies to use shoot-and-scoot tactics can dramaticly reduce the effectiveness of all but the most advanced artillery systems. (not hanging around to take a corrected second shot) Combine this with the human inability to remain permanantly on the move, and UAVs such as Darkstar, Predator, Global Hawk, and even NETFIRES, your enemy falls under artillery threat anytime they stop moving. Stop to eat, stop to set-up for firing, stop to refuel vehicles, or stop to sleep.