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OTTAWA — The Canadian army somehow lost three highly-sophisticated, precision-guided artillery shells on its way out of Afghanistan in an embarrassing case that resulted in an almost two-year investigation.

Known as Excalibur rounds, the 155-millimetre high-explosive ammunition could not be accounted for among the mission close-out paperwork as the military withdrew from Kandahar in late 2011.

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Newly released records, obtained by The Canadian Press under access to information legislation, show defence officials, at first, thought as many as five of the global positioning system-guided shells had gone missing when soldiers tore down their forward operating bases. But that number was reduced to three when it was realized someone had filed paperwork twice.

The shells are not cheap. They come with a price tag of US $177,224 per round, but are accurate to within 20 metres even when fired from up to 40 kilometres away.