M982 Excalibur

The M982 Excalibur, earlier called the XM982, is a 155 mm extended-range guided artillery shell developed jointly by the US Army Research Laboratory and the Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center. Raytheon supplied the guidance system and the Swedish BAE Systems Bofors the body, base, ballistics and payload. The round steers by GPS and inertial guidance, gliding on folding fins from the top of its ballistic arc, which lets gunners hit targets within 75 to 150 meters of friendly troops or near civilians where unguided shells would be unsafe. Its range runs from roughly 40 to 57 kilometers by configuration, with a circular error probable of about 4 meters, and a December 2020 test reached 70 kilometers from an extended-range gun tube. Increment Ia-1 entered service in 2007 and saw its first combat in Iraq that summer. Variants add laser guidance, a 127 mm naval version, an armor-piercing warhead and a shaped-trajectory mode. The shell has been used in Ukraine, where Russian electronic warfare sharply cut its early accuracy.