Fifty kilometers is the number General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems is putting on its new artillery guidance kit. The company said on Sept. 2, 2026, that its Long-Range Precision Guidance Kit, or LR-PGK, guided 155mm rocket-assisted artillery projectiles at ranges greater than 50 kilometers during a demonstration at Yuma Proving Ground. It called the result a first for a U.S. guidance kit.
The claim is the company’s own. General Dynamics did not publish the date of the firing, the number of rounds fired or a miss distance, and Combat Rated found no Army account of the test. What the company describes is a demonstration, not an Army qualification or a fielding decision.
In its Sept. 2 announcement, GD-OTS said the kit became “the first U.S. guidance kit to demonstrate the ability to accurately guide 155mm cannon artillery at ranges greater than 50 kilometers.” The company said the LR-PGK guided 155mm XM1113 Rocket Assisted Projectiles beyond that range “while achieving accuracy performance significantly exceeding legacy guidance kit requirements.” It did not say by how much.
A guidance kit of this kind is fitted to an existing artillery projectile to make it a guided round; the Army’s current kit, described below, is a GPS-guided fuze. GD-OTS says the LR-PGK is compatible with a range of 155mm projectiles, including the M1128 and next-generation rocket-assisted projectiles, and is “intended to extend the effective range and precision of existing and future artillery systems.”
The company also says the kit has a modular design that leaves room for later upgrades, and that it “has demonstrated resilience in laboratory and live-fire testing against operationally relevant threats.” The release does not name those threats or describe the tests.
Michael Bate, senior vice president and general manager at GD-OTS, said in the release: “In addition to demonstrating precision at unprecedented ranges, this test validates the performance, maturity and growth potential of the LR-PGK.”
The Army’s current kit: the M1156
The Army’s current guidance kit for 155mm artillery is the M1156 Precision Guidance Kit. A 2018 Pentagon arms-sale notice for the Netherlands, published in the Federal Register on July 31, 2018, described the M1156 as “a Global Positioning System (GPS) Precise Positioning Service (PPS) guided 155mm artillery projectile fuze.” That sale covered 3,500 kits, with trainers and support, at an estimated value of $70 million.
The LR-PGK’s pitch is range. GD-OTS says the demonstration “validates critical performance objectives for the LR-PGK and XM1113 programs in support of the U.S. Army’s emerging requirement for long-range massed cannon fires.”
The XM1113 round that flew the distance
The shell that carried the kit is itself a long-range program. The XM1113 is a rocket-assisted projectile, a 155mm round with its own rocket motor. Picatinny Arsenal described it in an Army article on Aug. 25, 2016 as the replacement for the M549A1 rocket-assisted round.
“The new projectile is currently designed to reach 40-plus kilometers and will be compatible with the existing M1156 Precision Guidance Kit,” Ductri Nguyen, the XM1113 integrated product team lead, said in that article. Nguyen said the XM1113’s rocket motor “delivers nearly three times the amount of thrust when compared to the legacy M549A1 RAP.”
General Dynamics has been part of that program for years. In a June 5, 2019, release, GD-OTS announced a $15 million prototype and process development contract for the XM1113. The company said then that the round would reach 40 kilometers from current U.S. 155mm field artillery systems, a 30% increase over the M549A1, and 70 kilometers from the Extended Range Cannon Artillery then being planned.
Where the company says the kit goes next
The Mobile Tactical Cannon is an Army program to replace the M777 towed howitzer. The Army announced on Aug. 18, 2026, that it had selected Hanwha Defense USA to develop prototypes under an agreement for six Mobile Tactical Cannon systems, with an option for 12 more, valued at $100,302,961.
GD-OTS ties its September demonstration to that program and to the existing fleet. The company says the result “highlights the readiness of the LR-PGK and XM1113 programs to support the performance requirements of the Army’s emerging Mobile Tactical Cannon program,” while also adding capability to “the legacy 39-caliber cannon fleet.”
Those are the company’s statements of readiness. General Dynamics’ release names no Army production decision, contract, quantity or fielding date for the LR-PGK. The verified record so far is one company-reported demonstration at Yuma: 155mm XM1113 rounds guided past 50 kilometers.
Top image: An Army M109A6 howitzer crew trains with the M1156 Precision Guidance Kit in 2014. The kit shown is the standard PGK, not the long-range kit. Image Credit: U.S. Army photo by Pfc. Joshua Kramer — Public domain / DVIDS via Wikimedia Commons
This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Combat Rated editors prior to publication.