The French Defence Procurement Agency (DGA) has announced the awarding of a new contract to fund studies into innovative metric precision ammunitions.
The design and manufacture contract will be conducted through a temporary company consisting of Nexter Munitions and TDA, a subsidiary of Thales.
The aim of this upstream study programme is the procurement of low-cost technological units for navigation, piloting, guidance, acquisition and detection, which can be integrated into several types of ammunition including, 120mm mortar, tank artillery, 155mm artillery, GMLRS rockets and 68mm helicopter rockets.
During the designation phase, the auto-director will detect the spot back-scattered by the target, and supply the information to the guidance system which then develops piloting orders to ensure terminal metric precision.
A spokesperson for the DGA said that the main operational objective of the program was to seek improvements in precision.
“Using this technology we hope to limit collateral damage, alleviate logistics and fire in the vicinity of friendly forces,” the spokesperson said.
This upstream study programme will end by 2012 with demonstrative 120mm mortar fire.
By Daniel Garrun.
