New Development Focused on 120mm Mortar Munitions
In a new departure for the firm, EXPAL Systems has developed a guidance system for a 120mm mortar round in collaboration with the Spanish MoD, the Madrid-based company announced on 10 March.
The company thus seeks to offer ammunition with greater precision, in order to reduce collateral damage, achieving greater survivability and mission efficiency. An additional design objective is to achieve improved anti-jamming performance. Within its range of ammunition and components, EXPAL has extensive experience in integrating guidance kits from third parties. With this new departure, the company is taking a definitive step towards an in-house capability in this regard.
“We have completely verticalized the weapon, ammunition, propulsion and fuze, so it is a natural step to also verticalize the guidance and incorporate it into our product portfolio,” explains Stéphane Plantinet, EXPAL’s Marketing Director.
The first project, initiated in collaboration with the Spanish MoD within the DGAM Coincident programme, is a 120mm mortar bomb guidance system, scalable to 155mm. This system introduces improvements in algorithms, electronics and mechanical strengthening compared to existing systems. Also, as a new requirement, scalability with respect to the European GALILEO positioning system is enabled.
“The new system responds to the needs of equipment and material of the army [defined] in the Spanish Land Force 2035 project. We begin with guidance for mortar ammunition because it is a field in which we are experts,” adds Plantinet.
