Online Sponsor: April 01, 2003
Firms that solve extended-range problem By BRADLEY PENISTON, DEFENSE NEWS MEDIA GROUP ALEXANDRIA, Va. — The number of smart artillery and mortar shell projects under way in the U.S. Army has ballooned in the past two years, the service’s project manager for tube-launched ammunition said April 1.
Located at Picatinny Arsenal, N.J., the Army’s combat ammunition systems shop is working to develop and test more than a dozen types of shells guided by Global Positioning System satellites, laser targeters and inertial guidance systems, Army Col. Nathaniel Sledge told listeners at the Defense News Media Group conference — Strike Warfare and Precision Attack: Compressing the Flash-to-Bang Cycle — here April 1.
Much of the effort is going toward two kinds of munitions for the service’s Future Combat Systems, a set of arms and vehicles scheduled to arrive by 2010.
One is the 155mm Excalibur round, which is guided by GPS and inertial sensors. Fired from the Army’s still-under-development 52-caliber gun, the new shell will glide up to 50 kilometers to strike a target with a probable error of 20 meters or less. It is slated for fielding to the U.S. Marine Corps in fiscal 2006, and to Army units soon afterward.
Sledge said the No. 1 challenge that remains is building a guidance unit that can survive firing, when the shell takes a load 15,000 times the force of gravity.
The office is also developing the XM395 guided mortar round, which will follow a laser beacon to its target. Its range will be about 7 or 8 kilometers — similar to today’s mortar shells — but it will be far faster to fire and hit the target, Sledge said. While it might take a mortar team 8 minutes and several shots to put one of today’s rounds on target, the new munition will tie into a battlefield data network to hit the target within a minute.
Sledge said the development office had adopted several new ways of working, including spiral development and increased emphasis on simulation and modeling. For example, the office intends to shoot about 550 Excalibur rounds in a certain phase of testing, down from the 900 that would normally have been used, Sledge said.
Noting that the Army plans to spend less than 10 percent of its development money on improving existing arms and equipment, Sledge exhorted the audience to think about the future.
“There will be less money in the pile for firms supporting today’s technology,” Sledge said. “A lot of companies are going to have to transform. I’m not sure there’s going to be enough to go around.
“Precision, fire-control: Those who solve the extended-range problem will be winners.” |
Sponsor: 
Maj. Gen. John L "Jack" Hudson |
