RIGHT ON TARGET
The first lot was shipped to theater and training was completed to the first mor- tar squad in March, only 11 months after the competitive selection. Fielding will continue to the IBCTs in theater this year. Work is underway to qualify the cartridge for use in Stryker BCTs as well.
A significant factor in the ability of the APMI team to develop, qualify, and field the XM395 cartridge so rapidly is the fact that the nose subsystem is based on ATK’s XM1156 Precision Guidance Kit (PGK), employing GPS with fuzing functions designed for use with 155mm artillery high-explosive projectiles. The PGK will be adaptable to the existing stockpile of high-explosive artillery projectiles
PINPOINT ACCURACY
The 120mm APMI can provide commanders with precision indirect-fire capability. Since its introduction in theater, APMI has been used successfully in actual fire missions. (Illustration courtesy of PEO Ammo.)
(M795 and M549/A1). Like the XM395 nose, the PGK enhances performance of conventional artillery munitions and sig- nificantly increases their effectiveness by using its onboard GPS receiver to correct the ballistic trajectory in order to improve projectile accuracy. As with the XM395 cartridge, mission-critical flight data and fuze setting information are inductively loaded into PGK using the same EPIAFS as Excalibur.
The APMI government-contractor team relied on already developed hardware and software, where possible, to save time and money. The team also made every effort to ensure that the system created the smallest possible logistical burden and is
easy to use for the mortarmen who will be firing it.
The call-for-fire process is unchanged with the introduction of APMI. The traditional mortar firing sequence now includes one additional step—to load data into the XM395 cartridge with the XM701 setter before it is fired.
Nonetheless, the New Equipment Train- ing Team is emphasizing to leaders and Soldiers that the successful employment of this new capability is different than for the unguided rounds it augments. Because the cartridge is designed to guide to a programmed point, an accurate and precise target location, including
Accelerated Precision Mortar Initiative (120mm APMI) Operational Concept 32 Army AL&T Magazine
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