Continued Investment Advances Capabilities
Northrop Grumman’s delivery of Precision Guidance Kits (PGK) for 155mm artillery rounds for US forces has now surpassed 100,000, the company announced on 28 September. The PGK replaces standard fuzing options for rounds currently in inventory, transforming them into GPS-guided precision munitions.
“PGK’s precision provides a critical capability to artillery units, enabling forces to rapidly achieve mission success by reducing the number of rounds required to defeat targets,” explained Dave Fine, VP Armament Systems. “Throughout our 100,000 deliveries, we’ve maintained superior performance, surpassing the Army’s objectives for both accuracy and reliability.”
Recent innovations include development of a selectable safety feature to prevent detonation if the PGK predicts the projectile will exceed the selected miss distance. The company is also close to being able to implement GPS M-Code, allowing PGK to defend against existing and emerging threats to GPS, such as jamming. Once implemented, PGK will be one of the largest production programmes within US DoD to integrate this crucial capability, that allows authorised users to acquire two signals from GPS satellites to achieve superior positioning accuracy.
Northrop Grumman continues to invest in advancing PGK technology, including creating PGK compatibility for the Army’s latest developments in extended-range artillery systems, as well as the ability to operate in GPS-degraded conditions.
