Orbital ATK’s precision guidance kit (PGK) is well into full-rate production and has now delivered more than 10,000 units.
PGK combines guidance and fuze function for conventional artillery projectiles into one device, allowing battlefield commanders to employ artillery with greater accuracy and less collateral damage risk when engaging high-value targets.
By replacing a standard fuze with Orbital ATK’s guidance fuze, artillery projectiles are reliably delivered to within 30 meters of the intended target.
(Army Europe artillery units are using the PGK, a new precision guidance fuze that is designed to be more accurate, lethal, and safer. Courtesy of 7th Army Training Command and YouTube)
During recent lot acceptance tests, randomly selected PGK fuzes provided accuracy better than 10 meters Circular Error Probable and performed all fuze functions with a perfect safety record.
This degree of accuracy greatly reduces conventional artillery dispersion, which can be 200 meters or more.
“More than 1,000 PGKs have been tested over the course of development and production,” said Dan Olson, Vice President and General Manager for Orbital ATK’s Armament Systems Division of the Defense Systems Group.
“These tests prove PGK’s maturity in terms of producibility, reliability, performance and safety.”
“Based on our experience, we see that PGK technology has the potential for greater integration across current and future indirect- and direct-fire systems.”
PGK enhances accuracy through Orbital ATK’s innovative design which features a fixed-canard guidance approach, gun-hardened electronics and a self-generated power supply.
PGK also incorporates a “fail-safe” option, preventing the projectile from detonating if it does not get close enough to the target.
“PGK is a great success story and tremendous capability for our artillery,” said Army Product Manager, Lt. Col. Anthony Gibbs.
“Not only have we reached a milestone in production, our soldiers have now fired it more than 1,000 times during recent operations – and it’s really giving them an unfair advantage.”
(See the PGK in Action! Courtesy of BalticaBeer and YouTube)
Under the initial production contract that fielded more than 4,000 units, Orbital ATK successfully completed a series of nine separate lot acceptance tests that demonstrated PGK’s reliability to guide the round while in flight and perform all fuze functions correctly under extreme environmental conditions.
In July 2016, Orbital ATK signed a $69 million contract that exercises a second option to produce PGK for the U.S. military through 2019.
Orbital ATK’s Defense Systems Group is an industry leader in providing innovative and affordable precision and strike weapons, advanced propulsion and hypersonics, missile components across air-, sea- and land-based systems, ammunition and related energetic products.
Orbital ATK designs, builds and delivers space, defense and aviation systems for customers around the world, both as a prime contractor and merchant supplier.
Its main products include launch vehicles and related propulsion systems; missile products, subsystems and defense electronics; precision weapons, armament systems and ammunition; satellites and associated space components and services; and advanced aerospace structures.
