Tyco Electronics announced it has received a $2 M contract award from Raytheon Missile Systems to produce products for Raytheon’s precision-guided, long-range Excalibur artillery projectile. Tyco Electronics will produce M/A-COM telemetry transmitter modules, Global Positioning System (GPS) antennas and telemetry antennas to support Excalibur and contribute to the projectile’s accuracy in both urban and complex terrain and reduce collateral damage.

The antennas and transmitter modules are high performance, miniaturized products that are integrated into the projectile body and can withstand all of the severe operational environments. Raytheon’s Excalibur is currently the only precision long-range weapon immediately responsive to the Brigade Combat Team.

“We are pleased that our M/A-COM telemetry and GPS products have been selected by Raytheon for this important next-generation projectile,” said Tom Lavaellee, business development manager, Tyco Electronics. “We are confident that the M/A-COM components will contribute to the accuracy of the Excalibur, thus lowering collateral damage and helping to keep troops and civilians safe.” Larry Burke, product line manager, Tyco Electronics, also commented, “Our highly miniaturized telemetry solution integrates transmit, data encoding and power conditioning functions onto a single circuit card enabling the product to meet the size and cost goals of the program.”

The Excalibur precision-guided projectile provides accurate, first round fire-for-effect capability to current and future 155 mm howitzers. Its better than 10-meter accuracy is achieved with a highly maneuverable precision-guided airframe, which is achievable throughout its range with extremely low round-to-round dispersion. Excalibur is currently the only solution to limit collateral damage and optimize effects with the fewest number of rounds using precision-guided technology.