US Navy test-fires ship variant of the Excalibur precision artillery shell.

The U.S. Navy recently conducted a firing test of the N5 naval variant of the Excalibur precision-guided projectile. The test took place in September at Yuma Proving Ground, in Arizona.

Raytheon’s sea-based Excalibur N5 projectile (Picture Source: U.S. DoD)

John Hobday, senior manager for advanced programmes with Raytheon's Land Warfare Systems division recently stated that "What we have done is leveraged and reused the components ... in a round that can be fired from the Navy 5-inch gun,". Then he added that "Part of [the test] was to establish the fact that it did work with the existing 5-inch rounds."

The N5 round was previously fired from a naval 5-inch gun in a 2015 test at Yuma. The follow-on test indicates the Navy's continued interest in the technology, although a timeframe for moving forward has not been made clear. This recent testing, Hobday said, shows the projectile could be used in the existing 5-inch gun without major changes being required, which could help the Navy saving money.

The Excalibur projectile offers double the effective range of the conventional shell currently used (which was of 20 kilometres) with the MK-45 5-inch gun aboard Navy destroyers and cruisers. It can fire out to 40 kilometres, or almost 22 nautical miles. The projectile also offers accuracy inside two meters.

In addition to that, the Navy might also be able to take advantage of an update Raytheon is developing for the Army - a laser-guided variant known as the Excalibur S that allows the round to seek and engage moving targets.