FORT RILEY, Kansas -- Soldiers from 1st Battalion, 5th Field Artillery Regiment, 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, tested a new addition to conventional 155mm rounds during a live-fire familiarization exercise April 30 at a Fort Riley training area.
The precision guidance kit, or PGK, is a new type of fuse that screws onto the nose of the projectile, giving the round GPS guidance and control surfaces to correct the flight of the shell. Batteries of M109A6 Paladins fired the rounds into the Fort Riley impact area with a great increase in accuracy.
"We've already seen the effectiveness of this round," said Capt. Jordan McElroy, the commander of Battery D, 1st Bn., 5th FA Regt. "We've been within 15 meters of the target, whereas normally you're going to be between probably 50 to 100 meters from the target. It's a drastic improvement to our capabilities."
A team of experts from Fort Sill, Oklahoma, were on hand to help train the Soldiers of the battalion in the use of the PGK. The Soldiers spent time in the classroom with the PGK team learning the ins and outs of their new tool prior to putting it to use in the field.
"It's something new to a lot of these Soldiers that they've never used before," said Chief Warrant Officer 2 Roberto Muniz, the battalion's targeting officer and the action officer for the PGK shoot. "They got classroom instruction from the fielding team and they were able to work out the digital systems and now they're putting it into effect."
Utilizing a new system was slow going at first, but after practicing with the PGK in the field, the Soldiers of the "Hamilton's Own" battalion became more and more proficient at its use.
"We've been working through a lot of kinks today, but everybody's been doing a really good job keeping motivated," Capt. Joseph Brown, the battalion's fire direction officer, said April 30 at the training area. "I'm pretty happy with the performance of the Soldiers out here."
One of the most useful features of the PGK is its ability to disarm the round mid-flight if the GPS determines the shell moves off course, a feature that is extremely helpful especially when operating in urban areas.
"It's a much more effective first round munition as opposed to the traditional munition," Brown said. "It's the way of the future."
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