Lockheed Martin on 11 November was awarded a $40.3 million contract to build Paveway II Plus laser guidance kits for US aerial bombs.
The award gives Lockheed the majority share of the work paid for in fiscal year 2014, leaving the bomb’s original manufacturer Raytheon with the minority share. It is the eighth contract award under the five-year indefinite-delivery, indefinite quantity contract under which deliveries will begin in 2015.
“Lockheed Martin is focused on continuous improvement in our current and emerging line of precision guided systems so we can deliver exceptional capability at the best value to the warfighter,” Joe Serra, precision guided systems manager at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control, says in a prepared statement.
“This contract extends US Air Force production at our Archbald, Pennsylvania, facility through first quarter 2016.”
Paveway II refers to the guidance systems added to various general purpose bombs and not the ordnance itself. The kits are for the 907kg (2,000lb) GBU-10, 227kg GBU-12 – both based on the Mk 82 general purpose aerial bomb – and the 454kg GBU-16, which is based on the Mk 83, Lockheed says.
A semi-active laser seeker and pneumatic canards guide the weapon to a designated target. Wings that extend after launch give the weapon lift and stability.
Lockheed will build kits that include a MAU-209C/B computer control group that contains the bomb's electronic guidance system, which is upgraded for the Paveway II Plus LGB to improve precision. The kit also will include the airfoil group, which provides lift and stability to the bomb as it falls toward its target.
Lockheed builds all three variants of the laser-guided bomb and is the only company that also builds the enhanced laser guided training round and dual mode LGB kits. It has so far delivered 135,000 training rounds, 70,000 Paveway II LGB kits and 7,000 dual-mode systems to the US Navy, US Marine Corps, US Air Force and 20 other nations.
Source: FlightGlobal.com
