NEWARK, N.J. – U.S. Army explosives experts are asking Northrop Grumman Corp. to provide precision-guidance kits to transform conventional 155-millimeter artillery shells into GPS-guided smart munitions.
Officials of the Army Contracting command in Newark, N.J., announced an $13 million order to the Northrop Grumman Armament Systems segment in Plymouth, Minn., in September for M1156 precision guidance kits.
The Northrop Grumman Precision Guidance Kit (PGK) transforms existing 155-millimeter high-explosive artillery shells into affordable precision-guidance weapons. This order brings the total contract value to $1.49 billion.
The PGK conversion kit uses signals from the Global Positioning System (GPS) to guide artillery shells to their targets with accuracy of 10 meters or closer.
Low-cost guidance kit
The low-cost fuze-sized guidance kit installs in the artillery shell's fuze well and also provides traditional fuze functions for height-of-burst and point detonation.
The PGK conversion kit provides maneuver forces with precision capability that works in all weather conditions, and fills a gap between conventional artillery and smart munitions capabilities.
The PGK is similar to, yet completely different from, the Army RTX Raytheon M982 Excalibur satellite-guided heavy artillery shells. While each system is designed to improve the accuracy of 155-millimeter artillery, they differ in concept, integration, cost, and performance.
Standard artillery shells
The PGK is guidance fuze that screws into the nose of standard 155-millimeter artillery shells and serves as an upgrade to existing unguided rounds. It uses GPS guidance and is accurate to within 10 to 50 meters of its aim point.
Excalibur, meanwhile, is purpose-built guided artillery shell with integrated guidance, control, and warhead. It combines GPS with inertial navigation to steer toward the target, and is accurate to about four meters of its aim point. The PGK's cost of $15,000 cost is substantially less expensive than Excalibur's cost of $68,000 per round.
On this contract modification Northrop Grumman will do the work in Plymouth, Minn., and should be finished by May 2028. For more information contact Northrop Grumman Armament Systems online at https://www.northropgrumman.com/what-we-do/advanced-weapons/armament-systems, or the Army Contracting Command-Newark at https://acc.army.mil/contractingcenters/acc-nj/.
