US Army Awards Raytheon $54 M for Excalibur Ib

Sep 10, 2013 ASDNews Source : Raytheon Corporation

    New variant will provide increased precision, greater range

The U.S. Army awarded Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN) a $54 million contract for the procurement of the second lot of the Excalibur Ib artillery round.

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.

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

With more than 690 rounds fired in theater to date, Excalibur is the revolutionary precision projectile for the U.S. Army and Marines. By using Excalibur's level of precision, there is a major reduction in the time, cost and logistical burden traditionally associated with using artillery munitions. Analyses have shown that on average it takes 10 to 50 conventional munitions to accomplish what one Excalibur can.