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Aviation History
1993
1993 - 1833.PDF
DEFENCE New guided bomb heads for USAF BY GRAHAM WARWICK IN ATLANTA The US Air Force plans to issue a request for propos als for the development of the joint direct-attack munition (JDAM), an autonomous all- weather guided bomb. After release from an aircraft, the JDAM will be flown to pre programmed target co-ordi nates using combined global- positioning/inertial-navigation (GPSANS) guidance. The JDAM guidance kit will increase the accuracy of a con ventional bomb to 13m (40ft) — 30m with INS-only guid ance — independent of release altitude and weather condi tions. The accuracy of an un- guided bomb varies from 50- 100m for release at low level, to 300-500m at altitude. The US Air Force and Navy plan to buy more than 70,000 JDAM guidance kits at a unit cost of under $40,000. The weapon is planned to enter service in mid-1999 on the Rockwell B-1B and McDonnell Douglas F-18. The Northrop B-2, McDonnell Douglas F-15E and Grumman A-6E will fol low, with the Boeing B-52 and Lockheed/Boeing F-22 last to receive the weapon. The first-phase weapon, the designated JDAM 1, will com prise a guidance kit for 900kg Mk84 general-purpose and BLU-109 hard-target bombs and the 450kg Mk83 bomb, which will be carried internally by the F-22. The second-phase JDAM 2 will include a programmable fuze under development for laser-guided bombs and the GBU-15 and AGM-130 stand off weapons. The third-phase JDAM 3 will introduce an au tonomous target seeker. Two 18-month contracts will be awarded in November for a combination of demonstration/ validation and engineering and manufacturing development. Cost is a major issue and work will focus on developing manu facturing processes and build ing prototype hardware to demonstrate affordability. One contractor will then be selected to build hardware for develop ment and operational testing. The services plan to intro duce competition by ensuring that the JDAM guidance unit is interchangeable with that in the Joint Stand-Off Weapon being developed by Texas In struments, providing two com peting sources for guidance hardware on both weapons. The USAF conducted an op erational demonstration of the JDAM concept in February, with six tests of a modified GBU-15 glide bomb. In launches from a Lockheed F-16 at altitudes between 25,000ft (7,500m) and 35,000ft, and ranges between 13.7km and 22.9km, the weapon achieved an average accuracy of 5.5m. One weapon failed and another weapom impacted within 2m of the target. The GBU-15's infra-red seeker and datalink were re moved and replaced by a GPS/ INS unit. Target co-ordinates from a mission-planning sta tion were loaded into the weapon on the ground via the F-16's data-transfer module. • -14= X * W The Eagle Eye before its tail was ruffled Bell Eagle Eye prototype crashes Bell Helicopter Textron's Eagle Eye tilt-rotor un manned air vehicle (UAV) crashed on 16 July during its sixth test flight. The UAV expe rienced a pitch oscillation dur ing landing, hitting its tail on the ground and rolling over on to its back. Bell is assessing internal damage to the composite- airframe UAV to determine whether it can be repaired. Meanwhile a second, back-up, Eagle Eye is being completed. The company expects flight demonstrations, which were planned to start in Yuma, Ari zona, in August, to be delayed by "a couple of months". The Eagle Eye was built under contract to the US De partment of Defense's UAV Joint Programme Office for a demonstration programme to determine the performance and flying qualities of a vertical take-off and landing UAV. Bell says that the cause of the crash has not been determined. • NEWS IN BRIEF OFFSET TARGET Indonesia's IPTN has signed a co-operation agreement with British Aerospace, re lated to the recent order for 24 Hawk 100/200s. The agreement, signed in Ham burg by BAe chief executive Dick Evans and IPTN chair man Dr Bacharrudin Habibie, sets the offset por tion of the £500 million Hawk contract at 35%. Al though no specific work packages have been agreed, the two companies will ex amine areas of potential col laboration, for which BAe will earn offset credits. Contenders line up for Kuwaiti missile order Matra and Shorts Missile Systems (SMS)/Thomson Shorts Systemes (TSS) are com peting for a Kuwaiti require ment for a very-short-range air- defence (VSHORAD) missile. Matra is offering the Mistral system, while SMS/TSS are pro posing the Shorts Starburst, married to a Thomson queuing and aiming system. The competition will be the first fought by the Shorts/ Thomson-CSF VSHORAD joint venture, set up earlier this year (Flight International, 10-16 March). SMS and TSS are the two jointly owned companies which form the venture. The missile procurement will be part of a wider French arms deal to Kuwait, which may also include Aerospatiale MM40 Ex- ocet anti-ship-missile-firing fast patrol boats. The continuing negotiations on the arms deal have received a boost from Kuwait City-based talks between French defence minister Francois Leotard and Kuwaiti authorities. A top- ranking delegation from the French Delegation Generale pour l'Armement arms-pro curement agency has visited Kuwait on a two-day visit to finalise the deal. • 16 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 28 July - 3 August, 1993
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