Expanded Excalibur Contract

Released on Monday, January 06, 2003

The Raytheon corporation has been awarded a $266 million US Army modification contract that expands the combat capabilities of the Excalibur program to meet the requirements of both US Army and Swedish Army.

This modification contract merges the guidance system developed by Raytheon of to date Excalibur program with the airframe concepts developed by Bofors Defence, a Swedish subsidiary of United Defense, during the US-Swedish TCM program.

The revised 155mm precision-guided projectile Excalibur program intents to meet the needs of the Future Combat System Cannon (FCS-Cannon), a self-propelled howitzer-like vehicle under development by United Defense. The FCS-Cannon is the result of Crusader program cancellation and by the end of this decade could begin to replace the M109 howitzer in the US Army inventory.

The new Excalibur projectiles will achieve the US Army Objective Force indirect fire requirements, and also increasing capabilities of near-term tube-artillery platforms. The Swedish Army will get back enhanced capabilities to its artillery systems. Sweden funds $57 million of the Excalibur program.

Excalibur is a member of the family of precision guided projectiles under development at Raytheon. The other members are the US Navy's 127mm Extended Range Guided Munition (ERGM) and the 155mm Advanced Gun System (AGS) Long Range Land Attack Projectile (LRLAP). The AGS, under development at United Defense, is designed to the next generation US battleships, DDX, CGX and maybe LCS.