Elusive targets: Navy in pursuit of smart weapons for five-inch guns.

At a time when high-tech precision weapons are commonplace throughout the military services, the Navy concedes that one of its flagship efforts to equip the fleet with extended range, "smart" five-inch shells so far has failed.

The program known as "extended range guided munition," or ERGM, was intended to produce a satellite-guided projectile that would be fired from five-inch guns aboard surface combatant ships. But 12 years and $2 billion into the project, the Navy has decided to Start over.

While Navy officials acknowledge the effort has been disappointing, they insist that fleet commanders need this technology, and that the project must continue.

"We know the technology is feasible," said Rear Adm. Charles Bush, Navy program executive officer for integrated warfare systems. The Navy awarded a contract to the Raytheon Company in 1996 to develop and produce ERGM, and the initial schedule called for the round to enter service in 2004. After technical hurdles surfaced in 1999, an independent assessment of the program by MIT Lincoln Labs concluded that both the Navy and the contractor had underestimated the complexity of the technology.

The ERGM projectile, although no longer funded by the Navy, continues to undergo tests at the Raytheon Company, and is expected to be one of the candidates in an upcoming competition for a five-inch "extended range munition."

The Navy believes that, by reopening the program to new competitors, it can get better technology at a lower cost, Bush said in an interview with military reporters. "There's been a lot of failures," he said. Navy officials had estimated ERGM would cost $60,000 to $100,000 per unit, depending on the quantities produced. Bush said the price tag should not exceed $50,000.

The ERGM round, which has a global positioning system satellite receiver, works like a missile, hitting targets as far away as 40 miles. The weapon experienced difficulties in the early stages of development, because the sensitive electronics could not survive a gun launch l 5,000 times stronger than gravity. "It's a difficult thing to do, am electronics in the muzzle of a gun, and for the electronics to work," Bush said.

For the upcoming competition, Alliant Techsystems will be proposing a different type of guided round, which the company claims is less complex and less costly than ERGM.

Alliant's concept is technologically simpler, said Thomas R. Wilson, vice president for precision weapons at Alliant Techsystems. The round has no wings; it flies its ballistic trajectory, but turns into a smart bullet only when it gets close to the target, he explained.

"It takes advantage of the relative accuracy of the artillery, as opposed to having to do so much flying of the shell," Wilson said. As it approaches the target, the weapon deploys canards, glides and adjusts its position to get closer to the aim point. "We are not trying to turn a projectile into a missile," he said.

In September 2003, Alliant engineers shot two five-inch rounds 60 miles, which landed within less than 20 meters of the target, Wilson said. Subsequently, the Navy awarded Alliant a $30 million contract to perform additional demonstrations this year.

Another possible competitor could be Lockheed Martin, which is developing a 155 mm guided projectile for the Navy's new DD-X destroyer.

The Navy, meanwhile, has yet to make a long-term financial commitment to this program. "We need to make a decision on how much is enough," said Bush. A solicitation for industry bids will be published this summer, he said.

Bush said the Navy will not set any price thresholds. "Price will be driven by the competition," he said. "Quantity drives the cost."

One way to save money will be to share components with Army munitions. "We are building, in many cases, the same things," Bush said.

The Army, for its part, also is struggling to lower the cost of precision-guided weapons.

Like the Navy, the Army has spent years and billions of dollars developing a GPS-guided projectile. The 155 mm Excalibur, made by Raytheon, is a high-tech round that can hit targets within a 10-meter accuracy, officials said.

But the cost of Excalibur--estimated at $30,000 to $60,000 a round--has raised eyebrows among Army budget planners, who fear that the service will not be able to afford this weapon in large quantities.

Artillery School officials have proposed, as a low-cost alternative, that the Army develop a "course-correctable fuze." The strap-on device would control the projectile aerodynamics and help guide the munition to its target.

"We are told that at the $1,000 range or less, you can put one of these within 25 meters of a target," said Gen. Kevin Byrnes, head of the Army Training and Doctrine Command. That would make the weapon three times more accurate than dumb shells, which on average hit targets within 75 meters.

Byrnes is overseeing a study that will shape future requirements for precision-guided munitions.