Mortars are traditionally ground-to-ground weapons, but that might soon change with the successful test of an air-dropped guided mortar shell.
General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems has demonstrated the ability to maneuver and guide an 81 mm air-dropped mortar shell to a stationary ground target after release from an aircraft.
The flight tests show the possibilities of marrying a precision strike capability with low-cost mortar rounds.
General Dynamics uses a patented Roll Controlled Fixed Canard (RCFC) flight control and guidance system — an integral fuze and guidance-and-control kit that replaces current fuze hardware in existing mortars.
General Dynamics spokesperson said the RCFC nose-mounted guidance kits leverage the Army’s existing mortar inventory, logistics, and investment to provide a cost-effective and lightweight weapons solution for unmanned guided aircraft.
The unit’s guidance system employs GPS navigation.
Application of the technology was sponsored by the U.S. Army’s Armament Research Development and Engineering Center at Picatinny Arsenal, N.J. Combining the state-of-the-art guidance with mortars gives Tactical Class Unmanned Aircraft System operators an option for lightweight, low-cost weaponization.
Picatinny Arsenal has been at the forefront of smart munitions development and continues to add to battlefield options by extending range and precision strike capability. Picatinny maintains such munitions improve the survivability of friendly forces, reduce collateral damage, increase the lethality of the Army’s lift capability, and streamline the logistics tail, all of which are critical to rapid development.
Picatinny has either developed or fielded other such munitions as the Precision Guided Mortar Munition (that’s launched from a standard 120 mm mortar tube on existing platforms and the XM982 Excalibur Extended Range Projectile, a 155 mm GPS-based fire-and-forget cannon projectile.
About the author: Alan M. Petrillo is a Tucson, Ariz., freelance writer who works in a wide variety of fields, writing for national and regional magazines and newspapers. He’s also the author of the historical mystery, Full Moon.
