Land Warfare

Raytheon receives $54 million Excalibur Ib order

12th September 2013 - 7:36 by The Shephard News Team

Raytheon will supply the US Army with a second lot of the Excalibur Ib artillery round under a new $54 million contract announced on 10 September.

The Excalibur Ib is a precision-guided artillery projectile based on Raytheon's combat-proven Excalibur Ia-1 and Ia-2, a 155mm precision-guided, extended-range projectile that uses GPS precision guidance to provide accurate, first round, fire-for-effect capability in any environment.

Kevin Matthies, Raytheon Missile Systems' Excalibur program director, said: ‘No other artillery round comes close to doing what Excalibur does for the warfighter. The Excalibur Ib will not only provide industry-leading precision for the warfighter, it will also improve reliability and lower the unit cost.’

According to Raytheon, more than 690 Excalibur rounds have been fired in theatre to date. The weapon has been developed to reduce the time, cost and logistical burden traditionally associated with artillery munitions.