An Artillery Rant

I know most of you will find this boring, but a bud of mine sent me this article about a new type of artillery projectile that got me a little miffed, so I opined my opinion and response to it below. (All is well here)

Excalibur or Bust
June 1, 2006: While the U.S. Army is determined to ship the first 500 Excalibur GPS guided artillery shells to troops in Iraq and Afghanistan by this fall, improved (longer range, more reliable) versions will take longer. Higher than expected development costs have driven the cost per shell to about $80,000. Half of that is actual manufacturing cost, the other half is fifteen years worth of development expenses.

One reason development took so long, and cost so much (over a billion dollars) was that, initially, Excalibur was going to be less accurate, and just disperse a few bomblets that would cripple tanks and kill infantry. But in 1998, it was found possible to include much more accurate GPS guidance. Three years later, it was decided to dispense with the bomblets and just use a more accurate, high explosive shell. After 2001, it became obvious the highly accurate weapons were all the troops wanted. GPS guided JDAM smart bombs showed that. So Excalibur had to adapt to compete, and is now basically an artillery version of JDAM. After word of the successful Excalibur tests got around, the troops became very eager to get Excalibur. The hundred pound shell is the perfect weapon for taking out bad guys who prefer to fight in the midst of innocent civilians. If American troops hurt any civilians while fighting Islamic terrorists, the Americans get blamed. Don't matter if the terrorists started the fight. The terrorists deliberately use civilians for cover, knowing full well that the civilians so used could get hurt. To the terrorist, dead or wounded civilians are a bonus, as they know the media will tend to blame the Americans.

U.S. troops also want Excalibur because it saves American lives as well. The 155mm Excalibur shell can be used at closer ranges (to nearby American troops) than the smallest current smart bomb (a 500 pounder). The enemy knows that if they get close enough to friendly troops, the American can't call in artillery or smart bombs, because of the "safe range" (from the explosion for friendly troops). The difference in safe range between Excalibur and a 500 pound JDAM is over a hundred meters. Moreover, Excalibur is available all the time, not just when a bomber is overhead.

The first Excaliburs reaching U.S. and Canadian troops in the Fall will have a range of 23 kilometers, and reliability of only about 75 percent. Sometime in 2008, a new version of Excalibur should appear with a range of over 35 kilometers (and eventually up to 60 kilometers). These versions will have reliability of over 90 percent.
An even cheaper smart shell is also in development. This is the Projectile Guidance Kit (PGK), which is actually a large fuze, that screws into the front of a 155mm or 105mm shell. This longer fuze contains a GPS and small fins to guide the shell to a precision hit equal to an Excalibur shell. The army doesn't expect to be passing these out to the troops for another five years. But if development goes smoothly, and Excalibur proves useful and popular, then the PGK might show up earlier. The PGK will cost less than half what each Excalibur does and, more importantly, can turn any shell into a smart shell. This is important for artillerymen, who don't like to carry around a lot of special shells, just in case. Artillery units already carry several different types of fuzes for their shells, so one more is not seen as a burden.
The pinnacle of artillery operations has always been, "one shot, one kill." But achieving this has always been like a golfer getting a hole in one. It can be done, but it's rare. Smart shells make "one shot, one kill" commonplace, and means artillerymen will spend less time constantly replenishing their ammunition supplies. Firing the cannon less often is also nice, as those beasts are a bitch to keep clean.

My reply:

GPS guidance packages are great, but pointing the projectile in the right direction is only half the trick. The other half is having the projectile change course in mid flight to get to where the satellite is telling it to go. A 155 shell has a time of flight measured in seconds and carries no "thrusters" to maneuver while it is in flight. Therefore it is relying solely on gravity and inertia to move to the target. Half of its time of flight is eaten up in the upward arc, leaving only the downward half of its trajectory to correct its path. JDAM have nothing but downward movement and thus can rely on its longer time of flight (starting at 25,000 feet rather than at ground level) and constant increase in its velocity to make direction corrections.

This projectile won't have those luxuries. It maneuverability to the target will be measured as a small tear drop around the target therefore the artillery battery may very well need to continue to use volley fire in order to hit the target. The retired Copperhead round, with its laser guidance ability, was supposed to give the Artillery its "one shot one kill" ability. But the prerequisite requirements of having the tube in the right position relative to the target and the observer, in order to give a half way decent shot of making the necessary course corrections to follow the laser to the target, made it not worth the effort within a fluid battlefield. Artillery tubes have always been plagued with being too close to their targets to allow the projectile to gain enough altitude to switch direction in flight, and far away from their targets to fire at them directly.

However, Army maneuver commanders were still under the impression that they had at their fingertips the ability to "put one through the office window and down the elevator shaft" just like their Air Force counterparts. I fear that tagging this projectile with the letters G, P, and S will only further inflate the maneuver commanders’ visions of grandeur and thus simultaneously disappoint them and frustrate the Redlegs assigned to support them. Final thought, Artillery was never intended to be a "one shot one kill" weapon system. There is something to be said with having the Artillery saturate the target area with high explosive and/or bomblets all the while having the maneuver forces inch their way up to the objective to engage in direct fire. (The JDAMs that these soldiers so desperately want is in fact a direct fire weapon).

So long as the artillery tube is facing skyward when it fires, it should never be misinterpreted as a direct fire weapon. Unfortunately, the artillery is allowing itself to be misconstrued in order to save itself from obscurity.