War & Health

Canadian forces in Afghanistan have a new weapon: a GPS guided artillery shell called Excalibur. The shell is made by defense mega-contractor Raytheon and costs $150,000CA per shell. Ordinary high explosive shells cost $2,000CA.

Why use shells costing many times more than an average infantryman’s salary? Accuracy, argues Lt.-Col. Jim Willis, “It lands exactly where you want it to land”. The shells are accurate within 10 meters, current shells are only accurate to within 50 meters. The increased accuracy means one “smart-shell” can do the job of whole barrages with current shells.

The new shells might counter a trend civilian casualties in the Afghan campaign for three reasons. First, the GPS guided shells turn artillery batteries into low (relatively) cost precision airstrikes, capable of collapsing a single structure on demand rather than carpeting the area with impacts. Second, less rounds fired reduces the risk of introducing exploded unexploded ordinances into an area. Third, the shells reduce the need to use massive airborne ordinances. In instances when precision strikes are required the primary option currently available to Coalition forces is an airstrike. However, precision airstrikes typically use ordinances with hundreds of pounds of high explosives, much more than is often needed to eliminate the threat. The “overkill” of these large bombs increases the risk of civilian casualties. The Excalibur shells are smaller and carry less high explosives, reducing the risk of civilian deaths.

However, counterintuitively, there is a risk the new shells will increase danger to civilians. Currently using artillery against insurgents in dense population centers is not an option, since the barrage would likely flatten the entire population center. Commanders with access to the new shells might have more confidence in striking the target and thus be more willing to fire into population centers.

Hypotheticals aside, I (and I think everyone) prefer more accurate to less, fewer required to more, and smaller boom to larger. If those are our guidelines the Excalibur seems well worth the price to our pocketbooks.