Meet Excalibur. No, not that Excalibur. But this projectile is almost as impressive as a sword that can pierce stone. Excalibur is the world’s first GPS driven projectile. What’s the big deal about having a GPS driven projectile? Well, for starters think about the force. Nah, not that force – forces that are acting on a projectile that is fired out of a tank. Engineers had to make delicate circuitry inside an artillery round. That’s like dropping a computer from the top of a skyscraper and expecting it to work! But that’s not the only thing that makes Excalibur the present and future choice for artillery.
Excalibur is a 155mm artillery round that can strike within 10 meters of its intended target. It has a 40 kilometer range that has a high angle of attack. Why is that important? Well, in combat, enemy combatants can hide near infrastructure that makes them hard to eliminate. That’s because typical artillery’s angle of attack is somewhere around 45 to 50 degrees. Excalibur’s angle of attack is somewhere around 80-85 degrees. That makes hiding nearly impossible.
And Excalibur virtually eliminates one of the most dangerous aspects of modern combat – friendly fire. In tests, Excalibur was fired with a 15 degree misfire. Now, over big distances, that is a huge mistake! Well, Excalibur’s GPS system and Canard Control Guidance took over and reguided the round back to within 2 yards of its intended target! That’s impressive.
[tags]Excalibur, Excalibur GPS artillery, GPS artillery[/tags]
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