Orbital ATK (NYSE:OA) has been awarded a $120 million contract to build, test and deliver precision guidance kits for the U.S. Army‘s 155-millimeter artillery shells.
The company began low-rate initial production of the projectile guidance systems in January and is scheduled to begin kit deliveries in early 2016, Orbital ATK said Monday.
“This contract signing marks another significant milestone for the PGK program, †said Dan Olson, vice president and general manager for the armament systems division at Orbital ATK’s defense systems group.
“Fielding PGK for use with existing artillery projectiles provides soldiers with a distinct battlefield advantage by greatly reducing the inherent dispersion associated with conventional artillery, ” Olson added.
The PGK fuze is designed to have fixed-canard guidance and control systems and a “fail-safe” technology intended to prevent detonation of a precision-guided munition until it reaches the target.
Orbital ATK provided PGKs for training and combat operations in Afghanistan through a U.S. Army urgent materiel release order in March 2013.
