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Ukraine Now Has the Excalibur Guided Artillery ‘Bullet’ That Always Hits
Well, almost always… The fired round hit or had an effect on the intended target 92 percent of the time during the Iraq War.
Since January, several videos have made the rounds on social media showing what appears to be Ukrainian attacks against Russian armored assets using the Excalibur artillery round.
The M982 Excalibur (previously XM982) is a 155 mm extended-range guided artillery shell manufactured by prime contractor Raytheon Missiles & Defense, BAE Systems AB.
The name Excalibur comes from the mythical sword of King Arthur, but the name ultimately derives from the Welsh Caledfwlch (Breton Kaledvoulc’h, Middle Cornish Calesvol), which is a compound of caled, ‘hard’, and bwlch, ‘breach’.
“Hard Breach” indeed.
Originally developed as a precision alternative to traditional artillery shells, the Excalibur can travel 40 to 57 kilometers (25 to 35 mi) and uses GPS to guide itself to its target in all weather conditions.
Its extended range is achieved through the use of folding glide fins, which allow the projectile to glide from the top of a ballistic arc toward the target.
It has a multi-function fuse that can be programmed to explode in the air, explode once it hits a…
