The Commander-in-Chief of Ukraine’s armed forces, Gen. Valeriy Zaluznhiy, has posted a video on his Facebook channel which shows the effects of the U.S. M982 Excalibur 155 mm extended-range guided artillery shell against Russian forces which had been attacking Mykolaiv.
Excalibur provides a longer-range alternative to a conventional artillery shell. It has folding glide fins, which gives a range of up to 50 kilometers compared with the 25 kilometer of a standard 155 mm shell. Fitted with GPS guidance, for improved accuracy, it will hit within 4 meters of its target, while unguided artillery shells can land up to 150 meters away – requiring several to be fired to stand a better chance of destroying it.
While comparatively expensive, at around $ 65,000 per shell, it is still much cheaper than the $150,000 for the missiles fired by the HIMARS system. Excalibur’s overall weight is 48 kilograms with a 22-kilogram warhead.
One of the Ukrainian servicemen, speaking on the video, extols the virtues of the Excalibur weapon: “Constant firing by our gunners against Russian positions on the Right [western] Bank [of the Dnipro River] for 24 hours a day, led to the enemy losing a huge amount of equipment which had been shelling Mykolaiv”
The video shows several destroyed Russian weapons systems including what appears to be the 2S7 “Pion” 203 mm artillery piece, two S-300 anti-aircraft systems and their associated radar, which Russia has resorted to using as a surface attack munition.
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.“The impact of artillery and the use of high-precision Excalibur projectiles is of great importance. This allows for maximum accuracy [against our enemy] ...” Zaluznhiy commented alongside the video.
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Comments ( 1)
Could the Excalibur or equivalent shell but used for anti-aircraft or anti-missile defense? Calculate an object's trajectory, set the shell's GPS to its anticipated location and fire. It would be cheaper than a guided missile and more accurate than AA weapons.
@Paul,
@Paul,
No wouldn't be good for anti-aircraft or anti-missle. It's more of a GPS location ground to ground munition. The ability to come within 4 meters on a bad day and also it's Anti-GPS jamming capabilities makes it a formidable piece of artillery. Dial in the GPS coordinates fire an forget. Load next Excalibur with GPS coordinates for next target and fire an forget. Instead of wasting 10 rounds of standard munitions to hit a target you just use one. The ability to protect troops from 150' from targets with percision strikes reduces collaterale damage. Unlike the Russians using outdated WWI tactics and destroying everything an wasting ammo on large swath destruction.