The Yankee and Zulu helicopters.
And, Excalibur.
The U.S. Marine Corps successfully fired two Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN) Excalibur 155mm precision-guided artillery projectiles from a range of 36 kilometers (22.3 statute miles) in theater. These shots mark the longest distance the Excalibur round has been fired in combat since its fielding in 2007.
With more than 500 rounds fired in theater to date, Excalibur is the revolutionary family of precision projectiles for the U.S. Army and Marine Corps artillery. The Marines have significantly increased the operational use of Excalibur in the last year, firing as many as 32 rounds in one week. By integrating Excalibur into close-combat formations, U.S. forces avoid collateral damage even when warfighters are in close proximity to the target.
"Having true precision artillery that can defeat the targets – and from such a great distance – gives our warfighters the ability to engage these targets that would otherwise be out of reach," said Michelle Lohmeier, vice president of Land Combat Systems at Raytheon Missile Systems. "Raytheon developed and fielded the world's first extended-range GPS-guided artillery, and we are proud of the unprecedented precision capability Excalibur gives our warfighters."
Oh and there is also that USMC truck thing-a-magingy that has long range guided rockets on it (with GPS/INS assist) that will pulverize a whole range of targets. It can reach out to 300km with quick response and a most unpleasant result for the enemy. Could even have fun chaining one of these to the aviation deck of an LCS.
A Marine and their rifle are powerful. Even more so with that kind of backup.
I would say that without the overly expensive and faulty F-35B STOVL, fire-support options for the Marine facing the enemy look pretty good in the coming lean budget era. Just remember that the next time Amos and Trautman cry us a river.
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UPDATE- Duh. Forgot to mention the very nice USMC C-130J Harvest Hawk.
2 comments:
Fair assessment... arguably not bad management of budget.
Perhaps other services could follow suit and do better as well -- upping the muscle ratio -- if given austere budget environments to work with?
And how many HIMARS vehicles and munitions could be procured for the cost of say, 5x F-35B in FY14 anyway (eg, for around $1.25 bn)?
Also, that's an interesting concept ie to re-evaluate an N-TACMS capability?
One additional capability I'd have to advocate for added investment in, would be for more next-gen 120mm mortar systems (towed, air-lifted and self-propelled) and acquisition of PGM mortar rounds (w/ 12km range) along with the standard. Perhaps study something like, converting around 500 +/- MRAPs into Mortar fire support vehicles?
Excalibur - is an example of an evolved project that advanced piecemeal. The Bofors/Swedish part (always somehow missing from the Raytheon pr) started out as a trajectory adjustble shell, where a radar would measure the shells path, calculate endpoint, a computer would calculate corrections to reach the intended aimpoint, which where to be sent by radio to the grenade. The goal was less ambitions, it was to reduce the CEP of a 155mm barrage. Later it got the Raytheon GPS module and evolved to where we are today.
It's worth noting that the grenade has wings that enable it to glide which extends it's range to 60km (and base bleed) , and that the final trajectory is near vertical, thus making it better for fragmentation and city fighting.
Keep up the good work with the F-35!
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