Deadly accurate

The PGMM can be fired from any Army 120mm mortar.


Deadly accurate
By Matthew Cox - Staff writer
Posted : Saturday Nov 10, 2007 7:24:33 EST

Army officials at Fort Benning, Ga., want to equip infantry units for the first time with a new, laser-guided 120mm mortar round capable of hitting the enemy on the first shot.

The Infantry Center recommended in mid-October that the Army’s senior leadership approve a plan to arm infantry brigade combat teams in Iraq and Afghanistan with the Precision Guided Mortar Munition by late next year, said Col. Don Sando, director of Infantry Futures at Benning.

The PGMM, a developmental program that’s currently unfunded, can be fired from any Army 120mm mortar and steered to within 2 meters of an enemy target from more than 7 kilometers away. That means a mortar crew can destroy a target using one to two rounds instead of a half-dozen, with far less risk of civilian casualties.

“It’s a significant breakthrough,” said Sando, who took part in a recent study launched to address repeated requests from infantry commanders for a precision-strike weapon as an alternative to traditional mortar barrages that result in high numbers of casualties.

The move is intended to give IBCTs a similar precision-fires capability that heavy brigade and Stryker brigade combat teams have with the Excalibur — the first-of-its-kind Global Positioning System-guided artillery shell.

It’s part of a broader study that has the Infantry Center and the Artillery Center at Fort Sill, Okla., focusing on how evolving technologies in precision indirect fire will change how commanders fight in the future.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2007/11/army_artillery_071112w/



uhc comment: This sucker was earmarked in 2005 --> http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/earmarks/preview-public-site/agencies/bureaus/accounts/earmarks/earmark2481.html?account-id=219&agency=007&bureau=20&earmark-id=217273&web-timestamp=&public-view=true

can things like that be outfitted as "tactical nuclear weapons"?

to be within 7,000 meters of a "tactical nuclear weapon" when it hits, that's why they are delvivered by planes or missiles.

it makes me very sad, because I want to operate on the idea that they'll be home by late next year.