XM982 PROJECTILE

Abstract

Excalibur provides improved fire support through a Precision Guided Extended Range family of munitions with greatly increased accuracy and significantly reduces collateral damage in most urban environments. The Excalibur is interoperable with the M777A2 Lightweight 155mm howitzer (LW155), the M109A6 (Paladin) howitzer, and Sweden's Archer howitzer. Excalibur will provide a 33% range increase over current Rocket Assisted Projectiles, with a 10 meter accuracy (Circular Error Probable) at all ranges. Excalibur is an international program, teamed with the Kingdom of Sweden (KoS), who contributes resources towards the development and have procured rounds in accordance with an established Project Agreement for use in their Archer howitzer. The Excalibur program is using an incremental development approach to provide a combat capability to the Soldier as quickly as possible, and to deliver advanced capabilities at lower costs as technology matures. Increment Ia-1 has been fielded to units in Iraq and Afghanistan in response to urgent need requests in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom (as of September 2010 re-named to Operation New Dawn) and Operation Enduring Freedom. Production deliveries continue to support the Warfighters. Increment Ia-2 was fielded in early FY 2012 and greatly increases range (from 25.2km to 37.5km) to LW155 and Paladin howitzers. Increment Ib will provide further performance improvements while significantly lowering unit costs. The Army reviewed the Excalibur program in 2010 during the Precision Fires Capability Portfolio review, a process to holistically examine, validate or modify requirements across the precision fires portfolio. At the conclusion of this review, the Army decided to significantly reduce the Excalibur program's procurement objective quantity, resulting in a Nunn-McCurdy breach for both the Average Procurement Unit Cost and Program Acquisition Unit Cost. The restructured program was certified by the Defense Acquisition Executive (DAE) on January 10, 2011. The DAE's Acquisition Decision Memorandum directed the program to fund the program to the Director, Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation (D,CAPE) approved acquisition cost estimate and funding profile. The profile procured directed procurement of 1,000 Increment Ia-2 Excalibur projectiles in fiscal year 2011 (a combined procurement with FY10 and FY11 funding) and Increment Ib projectiles in FY12-14 with the following quantity profile: 881; 2,001; and 573. The Army's FY12 President's Budget (PB) request was consistent with D,CAPE approved estimate, however a Congressional decrement has resulted in some modifications to the specific quantity profile, as indicted in the FY13 request.

Open PDF

Document Details

Document Type
Project
Publication Date
Oct 01, 2013
Source ID
708_0604814A_5_2040_PB_2013

Tags

Readers

  • Civilian Systems Systems Program Capability Development and Upgrade Support Activity Expense and Pay Management.
  • Defense Acquisition Program Management
  • Marksmanship and Weaponry.

Related Documents