Raytheon's combat-proven Excalibur moves closer to sea-based application

Raytheon Company successfully fired its new Excalibur N5 projectile during a recent live guided flight test at Yuma Proving Ground, Ariz.

A company-funded initiative, Excalibur N5 is a 5-inch/127 mm naval variant of the combat-proven Excalibur precision projectile used by the U.S. Army, the U.S. Marine Corps and several international armies. It is expected to more than triple the maximum effective range of conventional naval gun munitions and deliver the same pinpoint accuracy of the Excalibur Ib, which is in production today.

"Excalibur N5's range, precision and lethality will revolutionize naval gunfire and increase the offensive firepower of our Navy's destroyers and cruisers," said Duane Gooden, vice president of Raytheon's Land Warfare Systems product line. "This demonstration showcases the N5's maturity as a proven low-risk solution, and is ready for the Navy now."

Excalibur N5 can be used to support several critical mission areas including Naval Surface Fire Support, Anti-Surface Warfare (ASuW) and countering Fast Attack Craft (FAC).
"With the significant amount of re-use from the Army's Excalibur program, the N5 provides the Navy with an affordable, direct path to employ a critical capability," said Gooden. "We continue to build on Excalibur's unmatched reliability and performance by investing in a fire-and-forget, dual-mode seeker that will vastly improve the 5-inch gun's current ASuW and counter-FAC capability."