Israel Aircraft Industries MBT division is developing a dual-mode seeker stand-off glide bomb in an effort to produce a family of advanced guided weapons.
The dual-mode seeker consists of an active synthetic-aperture radar for guidance, with an electro-optical sensor used for target recognition during the terminal phase of the engagement.
The MBT division, one of Israel's centres for the development of advanced weapon systems, is also upgrading existing laser-guided weapon systems.
It has adapted the Griffin laser guiding kit usually installed on the MK-82 and MK-84 bombs for use on the smaller MK-81 125kg metal bomb. MBT is also working on a follow-on guidance kit which will produce an accuracy of 1m.
Rockwell has demonstrated a bomb-guidance kit which would provide a precision-guided-munition capability for the US Air Force's B-1B bombers four years earlier than the planned Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM).
The Rockwell-developed global-positioning-system (GPS)-guided tailkit for the Mk82 225kg bomb was demonstrated in May, when a guided bomb was released from a B-1B and achieved a "...six-fold improvement in precision compared to the standard unguided Mk82," the company says.
Rockwell says that GPS-guided Mk82s could be fielded on modified B-1Bs by early 1997. Integration of the JDAM on the B-1B is not planned until 2001. The GPS/inertial-guided JDAM is under competitive development by Lockheed Martin and McDonnell Douglas.
The tailkit adds a GPS receiver and aerodynamic control-surfaces to the Mk82 bomb. Before release, target co-ordinates are downloaded from the aircraft to the bomb via an infra-red datalink.
Source: Flight International
