The US gave up sending Ukraine Excalibur guided artillery shells costing $100,000 because they rarely hit their target, report saysThe US halted deliveries of Excalibur extended-range guided artillery shells to Ukraine after Kyiv reported high failure rates, anonymous Ukrainian officials told The Washington Post.
6 months ago, Ukraine told Washington that Russia's jamming of the guidance systems in several US-supplied weapons had eroded its ability to defend its territory, the officials told the Post.
The weapons most affected by the jamming were the Excalibur shells — a GPS-guided 155-mm artillery shell supplied to Ukraine — and the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, or HIMARS.
At one point, only 1 in 19 Excalibur rounds was hitting its target.In response, the US simply stopped further deliveries of the Excalibur shells, the Ukrainian officials said.
The cost of the Excalibur has soared, according to a Government Accountability Office report, to roughly $100,000 per shell in 2022, as much as 50 times the cost of an unguided 155mm shell, before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
https://www.businessinsider.com/us-gave-up-sending-ukraine-100k-excalibur-shells-hit-targets-2024-5
