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May 7 (UPI) -- Raytheon and the Navy have test-fired a naval variant of the precision-guided Excalibur N5 munition at short-, mid- and long-range capabilities. Raytheon announced the testing Monday in a news release, saying the munition "doubles the range of the Navy's big guns."
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The test of the N5 naval variant took place last September at Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona, John Hobday, senior manager for advanced programs with Raytheon's Land Warfare Systems division, told Military.com.
"What we have done is leveraged and reused the components ... in a round that can be fired from the Navy 5-inch gun," Hobday said. "Part of [the test] was to establish the fact that it did work with the existing 5-inch rounds."
In 2015 in Yuma, the N5 round also was fired from a naval 5-inch gun.
"What comes next is the Navy deciding where their priorities lie," Hobday said. "It's a positive indicator that they have allowed us to release this information."
The cost should be roughly $70,000 per round, according to Hobday.
Raytheon said the sea-based projectile is expected to more than double the maximum range of conventional 5-inch munitions aboard Navy destroyers and cruisers. It can fire out to almost 22 nautical miles with an accuracy inside 2 meters.
The Excalibur N5 is the sea-based variant of the munition used by ground forces around the globe with accuracy at all ranges in all weather conditions. It was co-developed by Raytheon and BAE Systems Bofors.
"Excalibur N5 answers the Navy's need for a sea-launched, precision-guided projectile," said Sam Deneke, vice president for Raytheon Land Warfare Systems. "N5 doubles the range of the Navy's big guns and delivers the same accuracy as the land-based version."
Excalibur has been fired more than 1,400 times in combat by U.S. and international artillery forces.
Raytheon has also developed other variants, including the laser-guided Excalibur S, Excalibur HTK and Excalibur Shaped Charged Trajectory.
The land-based Excalibur munition is compatible with the M777, M109 series, M198, Archer, PxH2000, AS90, K9 and G6 howitzers, and Raytheon said it is working to integrate it with other mobile artillery systems.
