PGK.

This is coolbert:

From the Barking Moonbat Internet web site some details of the American howitzer M777 weapons system.

Emphasis in this case on the EXPENSE AS INVOLVED IN FIRING A SINGLE PRECISION-GUIDED ROUND! Excalibur M982.

"Defense Department to Build 'Buntline' Howitzer"

". . . the M777 has kind of had a 40km range for 9 years now, but that was pretty much only with the magnificent M982 Excalibur shell, a guided munition . . . during the fighting phase of Gulf War II - that cost a mere $150,000 USD a shot. But double good news there! Not only has mass production lowered the cost to a bargain basement $70,000 USD per shot, a new, really inexpensive ($15,000 USD or less), replacement fuse with steering fins has been developed that works 99.5% as well (12 meters accuracy at 40 kilometers vs 5 meters at 40 kilometers), attached to an exploding shell that can destroy everything within a 50 meters radius of where it goes off), that will fit on any standard shell in the arsenal. This is the XM1156 Precision Guidance Kit [PGK]."

Cheaper by the bushel full. Each and every time a Excalibur precision-guided round fired $150,000 USD that cost reduced by more than half due to mass-production. In addition a kit now available that allows a CONVENTIONAL ROUND to be converted to a precision-guided munition at one-tenth [1/10] the cost of the M982 [Excalibur]!!

Artillery best evaluated as that system able to fire FURTHEST WITH ACCURACY!

NOBODY EVER SAID WAR WAS CHEAP EITHER, DID THEY?

coolbert.