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Subject: Excalibur News
ArtyEngineer    9/8/2009 11:35:21 PM
This news is from early last month but for some reason I dont believe SP noticed it, usually something like this would get posted by SYSOP. Link and Article in next post
 
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ArtyEngineer       9/8/2009 11:40:45 PM

Refitted Excalibur Rounds Hit Test Targets

By kris osborn
Published: 6 Aug 2009 11:07

Raytheon on Aug. 1 test-fired its GPS-guided 155mm XM982 Excalibur artillery shell with a new inertial measurement unit (IMU), hitting all nine targets in a trial at Yuma Proving Ground, Ariz., company officials said.

The Excalibur rounds "had an average impact distance of less than two meters versus a threshold requirement of 10 meters," said Michelle Lohmeier, Raytheon's deputy program manger, land combat product line.

The new IMUs, built by Atlantic Inertial Systems, Plymouth, England, were added over the past several weeks after reliability failures with the previous Honeywell-built IMUs.

The U.S. Army, which has taken delivery of tens of thousands of XM982s, had suspended deliveries of Excalibur because of the problem.

"The XM982 [Excalibur] round is required to operate in an environment that exceeds 15,000 times the force of gravity," an Army spokesman said July 30 in a written statement. "There was an inherent lack of design robustness in the qualified IMU configuration, which resulted in a failure rate of approximately 5 percent. We have not been able to conclusively trace the exact cause to a design or process issue."

Army officials said none of the rounds used in combat have had problems.
 
 
 
 
Doesnt surprise me that Honeywell are out, had a few issue with their magic box recently and still waiting on a Cause and Corrective action report from them.  Im not impressed.
 
 
 
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mabie       9/16/2009 3:27:16 AM
So can they yank out the Honeywell IMUs and replace them with the AIS unit for Excalibur rounds already in the inventory?
 
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