M982 Excalibur is an American long-range GPS-guided shell. Excalibur was specifically designed for encounters with stable targets and features amazing precision. The development of the program started in 1996: Raytheon provided the navigation systems and BAE Systems provided the body, the base, and the warhead. In 2004 the development program was merged with a Swedish one, known as XM982. The first tests of the Excalibur happened with the M777 light howitzer in 2003. In 2005, 500 shells were ordered, and the tests finished in 2007. Excalibur was already being used in Iraq and Afghanistan and its precision was impressive. In 2015, the US wanted to produce 1,474 Excalibur due to their great performance. In 2016, the cost per united reached a crazy amount of 258,777 dollars, so basically, each she'll cost more than the whole M777 howitzer. By the end of the year, the cost was reduced to 68,000 dollars. The US Army and Marine corps launched more than 1,400 shells in 2018. Sweden, Australia, Canada, India, and the Netherlands have Excalibur in their armory. Norway also expresses some interest.
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Excalibur is compatible with 155mm howitzers like the M777, the M109A6 Paladin, and the M109A7 self-propelled howitzer. It's also compatible with other 155mm infantry systems like the PzH 200, the Korean K9 Thunder, the Japanese Type 99, and more.
Excalibur features forward fins that can be folded. Due to the stability they provide, the shell has excellent precision. In Iraq 2007, reports stated that 92% of the launches were landed in a distance not greater than 4 meters from the target. Due to the high precision, the shell can be launched 75-100 meters away from friendly troops. In general, its precision helped in the reduction of damages on friendly forces and civilians.
The GPS navigation system provides Excalibur with the ability to land on an exact geographical location, a feature that helps troops target small targets of high importance. Except for that, Excalibur features inertial guidance that provides typical navigation to the shell when GPS is not available. Another great feature is that the shell is resistant to GPS jamming.
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One Excalibur shell has precision equal to 10 with 50 non-guided shells.
Excalibur uses different warheads, depending on the version. The basic one weights 48kg and carries a 22kg High Explosive warhead.
The warhead can be set to explode in the air, when impact or after the penetration on the target.
The first Excalibur version, XM982, started serving in 2007 and has a 23km range. Right after this version, another Excalibur version came with a range of 40km. Excalibur reaches 40km when launched from 155mm/L38 howitzers like the M777 or the M109A6 Paladin self-propelled howitzer.
