Weapons

Navy Test-Fires Ship Variant of Army's Excalibur Precision Artillery Shell

The Excalibur projectile offers double the effective range of the conventional shell currently used with the MK-45 5-inch gun aboard Navy destroyers and cruisers. It can fire out to 40 kilometers, or almost 22 nautical miles, compared with the current range of just over 20 kilometers. The projectile also offers accuracy inside two meters.

And, Hobday said, it would be a smart investment for the Navy because the service will be able to "leverage other people's money" by taking advantage of an existing program. Testing, he said, shows the projectile could be used in the existing 5-inch gun without major changes being required.

If the Navy does invest in the N5, Hobday said he expects costs to stay pretty steady at roughly $70,000 per round.

The service might also be able to take advantage of an update Raytheon is developing for the Army: a laser-guided variant known as the Excalibur S that allows the round to seek and engage moving targets.