First Successful Piloted Firing for Katana 155mm Artillery Shell

The KATANA smart artillery ammunition has successfully demonstrated its flight control capability during a test campaign using the CAESAR 155mm gun on carriage. This success marks a decisive milestone for the KATANA development programme.

Dominique Guillet, Director of Ammunition of the Nexter Group: “We are very proud to have met our ambitious calendar and financial objectives for the development of KATANA. We are looking to the future with confidence and continue to make exceptional efforts to ensure that this 155mm ammunition – which will be sovereign, intelligent and very accurate – can be marketed as early as 2023”.

All the CAS (Canard Actuation Systems) were deployed in accordance with the simulations, during the test firings. Thus, the shell could be fired along a trajectory that increased the firing range compared to a purely ballistic trajectory. These test firings confirmed the maneuverability of the ammunition, a Jan 19 Nexter statement on the exercise said.

Nexter Munitions confirms the mastery of this shell trajectory control system, in the extreme physical conditions of 155mm artillery fire during the tests carried out  in Sweden from December 7 to 11, 2020. The next test campaign, scheduled for 2021, will give rise to the first coordinate-guided and coordinate-controlled firings.

The KATANA ammunition is a 155mm shell that can be fired from all 52-calibre artillery systems, combining long range, decametric accuracy based on hybrid GNSS and inertial guidance and high terminal efficiency. –sh/adj/mgm (Image: Nexter)