AUSA 2022: Long-range PGK passes test with Extended Range Cannon Artillery
The Long Range Precision Guidance Kit from BAE Systems features GPS anti-jam technology that corrects inherent ballistic errors with firing high-explosive and rocket-assist artillery projectiles. (Image: BAE Systems)
BAE Systems has successfully fired its Long-Range Precision Guidance Kit (LR-PGK) for 155mm artillery projectiles from the US Army’s Extended Range Cannon Artillery (ERCA) at Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona.
The firing demonstrated ‘airframe structural survivability under extreme firing conditions’, the company announced during AUSA 2022 on 10-12 October.
It added that the ERCA survivability tests ‘are a critical milestone for LR-PGK’ as it demonstrated an ability to hit targets accurately at up to 70km range — a key long-range precision fires requirement for the US Army.
LR-PGK improves the accuracy of unguided artillery projectiles with low-cost navigation and guidance technology.
The guidance kit, which is compatible with existing and planned artillery projectiles, combines anti-jam GPS sensors with control planes that enable projectile manoeuvrability throughout flight.
BAE Systems is now focusing on long-range guidance, navigation, and projectile flight control.
PGKs for the US Army must demonstrate the ability to operate at high spin rates, in challenging atmospheric conditions, and in the presence of enemy signal-jamming.
Related Programmes in Defence Insight
More from Land Warfare
-
“Timelines are measured in seconds”: tackling the UAS threat with dispersed defences
Small uncrewed aerial systems (UAS) have transformed the battlespace, posing a complex threat across all domains. Militaries now need counter-UAS (CUAS) capabilities that defeat the danger while meeting demands around readiness, manoeuvrability and adaptability, according to Mike Spina, Director, Global Sales and Business Development for Targeting and Sensor Systems (TSS) at L3Harris Technologies.
-
“No single technology is enough”: why an integrated approach to uncrewed warfare is essential
In Conversation… Ahmet Akyol, CEO of ASELSAN, talks to Shephard’s Gerrard Cowan about how the rapid evolution of uncrewed aerial systems (UAS) is transforming the battlespace, with militaries focused on both deploying these platforms to maximum effect and developing the defensive systems needed to counter them.
-
Lasers heat up for counter-drone option as DroneLight tackles the big question
Using lasers to defeat drones promises to solve the dilemma of using expensive kinetic effects to kill platforms worth a few hundred dollars. While maintaining thermal output to provide the effects can be a technical hurdle, Israel’s Esh-Tech is one company working on a solution.
-
How Pearson Engineering combines tradition with innovation for the demining mission (Video)
At Eurosatory 2026, Pearson Engineering's Group CEO Ian Bell talked about the company's role in delivering specialist armoured engineering, route-clearance and demining capabilities to military customers around the world.