Alliant Techsystems to build kits to convert conventional 155-millimeter artillery shells to smart munitions
PICATINNY ARSENAL, N.J. – U.S. Army explosives experts are looking to Alliant Techsystems Operations LLC in Plymouth, Minn., to provide precision-guidance kits to transform conventional 155-millimeter artillery shells into GPS-guided smart munitions.
Officials of the Army Contracting Command at Picatinny Arsenal, N.J., announced a $167.8 million order last week to Alliant Techsystems Operations LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Northrop Grumman Corp., for M1156 precision guidance kits for the Army.
Alliant Techsystems’s precision guidance kit (PGK) transforms existing 155-millimeter high-explosive artillery projectiles into affordable satellite-guided precision weapons.
The PGK uses signals from the Global Positioning System (GPS) to guide artillery shells to their targets with accuracy of less than 10 meters.
The low-cost reliable, fuze-sized guidance kit installs in the artillery shell's fuze well and also provides traditional fuze functions for height-of-burst and point detonation.
PGK provides maneuver forces with an organic precision capability that works in all weather conditions, and fills a gap between conventional artillery and smart munitions capabilities.
On this contract modification Alliant Techsystems will do the work in Plymouth, Minn., and should be finished by May 2024. For more information contact Northrop Grumman online at www.northropgrumman.com, or the Army Contracting Command New Jersey at https://acc.army.mil/contractingcenters/acc-nj.
John Keller | Editor-in-Chief
John Keller is the Editor-in-Chief, Military & Aerospace Electronics Magazine--provides extensive coverage and analysis of enabling electronics and optoelectronic technologies in military, space and commercial aviation applications. John has been a member of the Military & Aerospace Electronics staff since 1989 and chief editor since 1995.
