Sir, you've hit the nail on the head. The Excalibur round is designed to be a projectile for the 777. The 777 is remarkably accurate. But when one is pushing shells out 20 or 30 kilometres, and the intent is to neutralize a pinpoint target instead of saturating the countryside with high explosives, then I guess the question to ask is what the cost is of not having this precision capability. The intent is to buy a modest number of these shells--somewhere between 30 and 35. They are expensive, there's no doubt about it, but it's far better to spend a certain amount of money than to have tragedies ensue when collateral damage may be inadvertently caused to those we are not actively trying to engage.
On November 20th, 2006. See this statement in context.