Army Modernizes Projectiles to Adjust Course in Flight and Destroy Hidden Targets

Video Above: Army 2-Star Describes Range Doubling, Course Correcting Artillery

By Kris Osborn – President & Editor-In-Chief, Warrior Maven

For years, enemy armored vehicles, troop formations and weapons systems have been deliberately hiding under bridges, behind buildings or even on the other side of mountains, ridges and uneven terrain … for the specific purpose of eluding US Army precision guided weapons such as GPS-guided Excalibur 155 artillery rounds.

Successful in war for many years now, going back to Iraq in 2007, Excalibur has been used to pinpoint enemy target to within one-meter of accuracy from 30km away, something which changed the paradigm for ground warfare years ago. 

Enemies have now learned of this capability and taken decided measures to counter precision strikes. Hiding in defilade or areas obscured by terrain can make it extremely difficult for Excalibur to attack and destroy certain enemy targets, as the GPS-guided rounds typically follow a specific “parabola-like” trajectory and descend upon fixed, identified targets.

Shaped Trajectory

Now, the Army is changing this in an accelerated fashion through the development of a new, cutting edge 155mm artillery round called the “shaped trajectory,” a projectile capable of adjusting course in flight and changing directions as needed to destroy otherwise obscured or unreachable targets.

“We want to get to the point where we have target seeking munitions. Counterintuitively, it lowers the cost-per-kill. These will be expensive munitions, but when you have the confidence that it’s going to seek and destroy the target you’re shooting at, it certainly lowers the number of munitions you have to shoot at it,” Maj. Gen. John Rafferty, Director, Long Range Precision Fires Cross Functional Team, Army Futures Command, told Warrior in an interview.