US sends its most accurate artillery shell "Excalibur" to Ukraine

The Pentagon has sent Ukraine its most accurate artillery shell, the GPS-guided Excalibur.

A plan to replenish the US stock of Excaliburs acknowledges for the first time that the Pentagon has been supplying Ukrainian forces with the shell, Bloomberg reported on September 8. 

Officials have sidestepped questions about the Excalibur despite reports that planning was underway to provide it and then that it was already in use in Ukraine.

A satellite-guided weapon that can hit within seven feet (two meters) of its target, the Excalibur was first used in Iraq in 2007 in the high-profile killing of al-Qaeda leader Abu Jurah and associates.

The Defense Department will spend $92 million in congressionally approved supplemental funds “for procurement of replacement M982 Excalibur munitions transferred to Ukraine in support of the international effort to counter Russian aggression,” according to a budget document last month that wasn’t previously disclosed.

Used in 155mm howitzers -- the Army’s workhorse field artillery -- the projectile was co-developed by Raytheon Missiles and Defense and BAE Systems Bofor.

The precision-guided Excalibur lets battlefield commanders zero in on targets more precisely. It has a range of 25 miles (40.5 kilometres), according to the documents.

The Excalibur is listed in documents spelling out how the Pentagon is spending some of the $20.1 billion in the “Additional Ukraine Supplemental” signed by President Joe Biden in May.

The Excalibur rounds were taken from Army stocks as part of 19 “Presidential Drawdown Authority” moves valued at $8 billion. So far, the Pentagon has detailed restocking purchases totalling about $7 billion in seven instalments through last month.

“The $92 million addition to Excalibur more than doubles the program’s budget, adding about 900 projectiles in fiscal 2022, up from $56.7 million that Congress approved this fiscal year,” according to Mark Cancian, a defence analyst with the Center for Strategic and International Studies who’s monitoring Ukraine-related spending.

The $56.7 million is to purchase 374 of the sophisticated, GPS-jam-proof rounds, according to Army budget documents.

“This also confirms what had long been suspected, that the United States is providing this advanced weapon to Ukraine,” Cancian said. Each round currently costs from $98,700 to $106,400 in fiscal 2021 and 2022 dollars depending on the quantities purchased, according to Army budget documents.