Elbit Systems’ Silver Bullet gives conventional 155mm artillery shells the ability to correct their flight toward a target, offering armies a way to dramatically improve accuracy without replacing their existing artillery systems.
By Hezy Laing
Artillery remains one of the most powerful weapons on the modern battlefield, but conventional shells have a fundamental weakness: once fired, they cannot change their course.
Artillery crews calculate a target’s location, account for weather and other conditions, and fire. Even with careful calculations, conventional shells can land far from their intended destination, sometimes requiring repeated firing to destroy a single target.
Elbit Systems’ Silver Bullet is designed to change that.
Developed by the Israeli defense company, Silver Bullet is a precision guidance kit that replaces the standard front-mounted fuze on compatible 155mm artillery ammunition. This relatively small component adds satellite navigation and course-correction capabilities, transforming conventional ammunition into precision-guided weapons.
Instead of purchasing an entirely new type of projectile, armies can upgrade compatible ammunition with Elbit’s specialized guidance system.
How the Silver Bullet finds its target
The system uses Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) technology, which includes GPS, to determine the shell’s position throughout its flight.
An onboard guidance computer continually compares the projectile’s actual position with its programmed destination and makes corrections when necessary. Elbit describes the technology as a two-dimensional (2D) guidance system, designed to improve the shell’s trajectory and reduce the distance between its landing point and the intended target.
Elbit advertises a Circular Error Probable (CEP) of 20 meters. In simple terms, this means that under the relevant conditions, half of the projectiles are expected to land within 20 meters of the intended target.
The company also advertises first-shot hit capability, allowing artillery crews to engage targets without relying on the repeated firing adjustments traditionally associated with unguided ammunition.
What makes the Israeli system different?
Guided artillery is not new. The American M712 Copperhead, developed in the 1970s, was a laser-guided 155mm projectile that could home in on targets illuminated by a laser designator.
The American M982 Excalibur later demonstrated another approach, using satellite and inertial navigation to guide a dedicated precision artillery projectile.
Silver Bullet takes a different route. Rather than requiring an entirely specialized projectile, Elbit replaces the conventional fuze with an integrated guidance and correction unit, allowing compatible standard ammunition to gain precision-guidance capabilities.
This is particularly attractive to armies that already operate large fleets of 155mm artillery guns and maintain substantial ammunition inventories.
Fewer shells, greater battlefield efficiency
One of Silver Bullet’s most significant advertised advantages is its potential to reduce ammunition consumption.
Elbit claims the system can reduce the number of shells required for a target engagement by approximately 50% to 80%. This is a manufacturer-reported figure, not an independently verified result across all battlefield conditions.
The savings could have major logistical implications. Artillery ammunition is heavy, expensive to transport and requires a constant supply chain to keep units operating.
Using fewer shells to accomplish a mission could mean fewer ammunition deliveries, lower transportation costs and more time before an artillery battery needs to be resupplied.
Built for the modern battlefield
Modern armies increasingly face electronic warfare, including attempts to disrupt satellite-navigation signals used by precision weapons.
Elbit says Silver Bullet can operate in degraded GNSS environments, an important capability when satellite signals are weakened or disrupted. This does not mean the system is immune to GPS jamming, but it demonstrates that the company has considered the challenges of electronic interference.
The system is also designed to work with automatic artillery-loading systems and ammunition storage compartments, helping armies integrate the technology into existing artillery operations.
Its multifunction fuze offers two detonation settings: Point Detonation, which triggers an explosion upon impact, and Point Detonation Delay, which delays the explosion briefly after impact.
Elbit also markets Silver Bullet as an alternative for certain Close Air Support (CAS) missions, in which aircraft provide fire support to ground troops. Precision artillery cannot replace the full range of aircraft capabilities, but it can potentially provide some of that support when suitable artillery units are available.
For armies that have already invested heavily in artillery, Silver Bullet offers an appealing possibility: getting considerably more capability from compatible ammunition without having to replace an entire generation of weapons.
