Army continues investment in Excalibur

September 6, 2008 by Dagpotter · Comment
Filed under: Australia, Contract Awards, Raytheon, U.S. Army, production program 

The Excalibur is a 155 mm artillery round fired by the standard Army gun systems, both towed and self-propelled. When the program started in the Eighties the plan was to use laser guidance for terminal homing. Excalibur now uses GPS guidance, like the Joint Directed Air Munition (JDAM) used so successfully over the last seven years in Iraq and Afghanistan. The round also has extended range over older, more conventional ammunition. Raytheon was awarded a production contract for the US and Australia. The value is about $85 M.

The press release is at the Phoenix Business Journal.

Even small contracts make a difference

Here is a little article about the Army buying safety gloves. Even this small contract, no value given, will allow the company to hire more workers and invest in machinery. Of course the problem with these kind of contracts is unless the supplier can find new commercial customers or get a continuous stream of DoD orders the jobs will end in a set period of time. Read more

V-22 contract spillover

Vought signed a contract with Boeing today to build the tail section for the V-22. The article is here. This is to support the production contract Boeing just signed. See the post on that contract award here. While Boeing is the prime on the aircraft, like most procurement contracts, there are many subs involved.

Indian C-130J ordered

The Department of Defense ordered the six Indian C-130J aircraft from Lockheed Martin. See the article here. As in the case of most Foreign Military Sales (FMS) India just piggy-backed on the current production contract. This gives them the lowest price possible due to production quantities and stability. The total contract is worth over $1 B, but the aircraft part is about $600 M.