ATK to Develop Lower-cost, Higher-reliability M982E1 Excalibur Ib Projectile

Released on Monday, September 29, 2008

MINNEAPOLIS, Sept. 29 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Alliant Techsystems (NYSE: ATK) announced today that it has been awarded a $10.4 million contract for the first phase of a 48-month Excalibur Ib system design and development program from the U.S. Army, Picatinny Arsenal, New Jersey. The program is structured in two phases with a 15 round "shoot-off" and down-select at the completion of Phase 1, 18 months from now. Production options, which are expected to be exercised in the 2012, could bring total contract value to more than $350 million.

The Excalibur Ib is a lower-cost, higher-reliability alternative to the currently fielded Excalibur Ia, a precision-guided, extended-range 155mm artillery projectile. The Increment Ib weapon will provide long range (greater than or equal to 40km) with precise accuracy (less than or equal to 10m circular error probable) at less than one-half the cost of the current Excalibur variant. Many missions in tight urban areas require very precise, highly reliable munitions due to the risk of collateral damage.

"ATK is committed to providing affordable precision solutions to our soldiers in the field," said Jack Cronin, President of ATK Mission Systems Group. "When you combine the savings of our Excalibur Ib with ATK's Precision Guidance Kit (PGK) solutions for 155mm and 105mm artillery rounds, we believe that ATK can enable the U.S. Army to move to an all-precision inventory of artillery ammunition."

The ATK design is a fin-stabilized, ballistic trajectory solution. This approach enables the round to take advantage of the inherent accuracy of the gun and yields a faster time to target. This reduces the need for the round to make complex maneuvers in flight and significantly simplifies the guidance and control system required. The result is a lower-cost and inherently more reliable system because it has fewer total parts and fewer moving parts.

Work will be performed in ATK facilities in Plymouth and Elk River, Minn., Rocket Center, W.Va., and Elkton, Md.