Denmark Set To Shell Out On Excalibur

The Danish government has provisionally agreed to purchase almost 350 Excalibur artillery shells in a deal worth an estimated $121 million.

The U.S. State Department has approved the potential sale of 339 of the M982A1 munitions and related logistics and support, as per Tuesday's statement from the Defence Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA).

The DSCA statement went on to note: "The proposed sale will improve Denmark’s capability to meet current and future threats by providing precision capability equipment and increasing first strike accuracy in its brigades."

Also included in the proposed sale are Portable Electronic Fire Control Systems (PEFCS) and Improved Platform Integration Kits (iPIKs).

The artillery shell — developed principally as a collaboration between Raytheon and BAE Systems — is a 155mm extended-range guided artillery shell. Named after the mythical sword of King Arthur, the Excalibur is a precision munition guided by GPS, inertial systems, and in some cases lasers, depending on the specific model.

It is designed to used on targets where friendly forces and/or non-combatants are in close proximity. Using fins to help it glide towards a target, it has a range of up to 35 miles and a projected strike accuracy radius of around 4 metres. 

Self-propelled guns compatible with Excalibur are the American M109A6 Paladin and M109A7, the British AS-90, the German PzH 2000, South African G6, Swedish Archer and French Caesar; compatible towed guns include the American M198 and M777 howitzers.

As per a contemporaneous Raytheon statement, by October 2018 over 1,400 Excalibur rounds had already been fired in combat.

You can read the full details of the potential sale on the DSCA website