N THE rapid US victories in Af-ghanistan and Iraq, precision weap-ons were a major factor—both op-erationally and psychologically.

Operationally, the accuracy of newsatellite guided munitions expandedthe effectiveness of each strike air-craft and dramatically acceleratedthe pace of the ground advance. Psy-chologically, guided munitions de-molished the enemy’s confidence,replacing it with the certain knowl-edge that American bombs wouldfind their targets even at night, inbad weather, or through smoke orblowing sand.

Now, the Air Force is about tousher in a new generation of preci-sion weapons that will even furtherexpand its power. Smaller, more ac-curate bombs with tailorable explo-sive effects will nearly quadruplethe number of targets that a singleaircraft can destroy in one mission.Stealthy, longer-ranged weapons willextend USAF’s reach through ringsof heavy anti-aircraft defenses, mak-ing it possible to strike high-valuetargets without undue risk to air-craft.

USAF expects this new genera-tion of weaponry—coupled with ad-vances in networking of sensors andinstantaneous distribution of infor-mation to the warfighter—to carry itthrough the next two decades.

In the world of guided weapons,today’s gold standard is the JointDirect Attack Munition. The JDAM,which is guided by signals from Glob-al Positioning System satellites, wasa direct outgrowth of Gulf War I. In1991, when a target area was ob-scured by smoke or bad weather,pilots often would abandon laserguided bomb attacks, returning tobase with their ordnance. Before thatbrief war ended, USAF leaders de-cided the service must develop a pre-cision or near-precision weapon thatwould work in any weather.

Instant StarJDAM was ready for Operation

Allied Force, the 1999 Balkans con-flict. However, quantities were lim-ited, and, at that time, it could onlybe used on the B-2 stealth bomber.The JDAM became an instant starand was so highly sought by strikeplanners that USAF quickly ranthrough its available stock.

By 2001, JDAM was certified onpractically all combat aircraft in thefleet and was available in 1,000-pound and 2,000-pound versions. Itwas used extensively in OperationEnduring Freedom in Afghanistanand in Operation Iraqi Freedom inIraq, where it took away most ofthe enemy’s traditional defenses—weather, darkness, and camouflage.

Precision: The Next GenerationSmaller, highly accurate, designer weaponswill increase the lethality of USAF aircraft.

By John A. Tirpak, Executive Editor

AIR FORCE Magazine / November 2003 1AIR FORCE Magazine / November 20031

In this artist’s conception, a B-2 dropsa load of Joint Direct Attack

Munitions. The JDAM is now the goldstandard of guided weapons—widelyavailable and offering near-precision

accuracy. In September, the B-2demonstrated its ability to release 80

independently targeted 500-poundJDAMS.

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N THE rapid US victories in Af-ghanistan and Iraq, precision weap-ons were a major factor—both op-erationally and psychologically.

Operationally, the accuracy of newsatellite guided munitions expandedthe effectiveness of each strike air-craft and dramatically acceleratedthe pace of the ground advance. Psy-chologically, guided munitions de-molished the enemy’s confidence,replacing it with the certain knowl-edge that American bombs wouldfind their targets even at night, inbad weather, or through smoke orblowing sand.

Now, the Air Force is about tousher in a new generation of preci-sion weapons that will even furtherexpand its power. Smaller, more ac-curate bombs with tailorable explo-sive effects will nearly quadruplethe number of targets that a singleaircraft can destroy in one mission.Stealthy, longer-ranged weapons willextend USAF’s reach through ringsof heavy anti-aircraft defenses, mak-ing it possible to strike high-valuetargets without undue risk to air-craft.

USAF expects this new genera-tion of weaponry—coupled with ad-vances in networking of sensors andinstantaneous distribution of infor-mation to the warfighter—to carry itthrough the next two decades.

In the world of guided weapons,today’s gold standard is the JointDirect Attack Munition. The JDAM,which is guided by signals from Glob-al Positioning System satellites, wasa direct outgrowth of Gulf War I. In1991, when a target area was ob-scured by smoke or bad weather,pilots often would abandon laserguided bomb attacks, returning tobase with their ordnance. Before thatbrief war ended, USAF leaders de-cided the service must develop a pre-cision or near-precision weapon thatwould work in any weather.

Instant StarJDAM was ready for Operation

Allied Force, the 1999 Balkans con-flict. However, quantities were lim-ited, and, at that time, it could onlybe used on the B-2 stealth bomber.The JDAM became an instant starand was so highly sought by strikeplanners that USAF quickly ranthrough its available stock.

By 2001, JDAM was certified onpractically all combat aircraft in thefleet and was available in 1,000-pound and 2,000-pound versions. Itwas used extensively in OperationEnduring Freedom in Afghanistanand in Operation Iraqi Freedom inIraq, where it took away most ofthe enemy’s traditional defenses—weather, darkness, and camouflage.

Precision: The Next GenerationSmaller, highly accurate, designer weaponswill increase the lethality of USAF aircraft.

By John A. Tirpak, Executive Editor

AIR FORCE Magazine / November 2003 1AIR FORCE Magazine / November 20031

In this artist’s conception, a B-2 dropsa load of Joint Direct Attack

Munitions. The JDAM is now the goldstandard of guided weapons—widelyavailable and offering near-precision

accuracy. In September, the B-2demonstrated its ability to release 80

independently targeted 500-poundJDAMS.

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AIR FORCE Magazine / November 200346

Moreover, it was able to take advan-tage of information from airbornesensors, satellites, and special op-erations forces on the ground.

“The rapid collapse [of the Talibanand al Qaeda] across Afghanistan ...was a direct result of being able to tieincredibly precise applications of air-power to incredibly brave people onthe ground, with the capabilities tobring JDAM and [laser guided] weap-ons to bear on a very mobile andelusive opponent,” said Gen. T. Mi-chael Moseley, who commanded coa-lition air forces in both conflicts.

In Afghanistan, JDAM greatlyimpressed the Northern Alliancefighters, part of the anti-Taliban coa-lition. Gen. Charles F. Wald, whowas the air boss when operations gotunder way in Afghanistan, said thatthe Afghan allies were amazed thatUS special operations forces couldcall in air strikes on advancing Tali-ban units and get precise results inhours or even minutes.

“The idea of bombs coming fromway up in nowhere, ... at night,through the weather, is all of a sud-den a psychological tool,” said Wald,who is now vice commander of USEuropean Command.

In Iraq, the JDAM effect was evenmore pronounced. Moseley said that,by using JDAM and other guidedweapons, planners could designateair strikes against urban targets thatotherwise would have been off-lim-its for fear of collateral damage. Theability to dismantle the Iraqi regime

building by building had a powerfuleffect on the enemy, he said.

Throughout the theater, said Mose-ley, JDAMs and other guided weap-ons were “the primary preferredmunitions.”

The reason was clear. JDAM rou-tinely exceeded its established pa-rameters. Requirements call for themunition to hit within 43 feet of atarget. Brig. Gen. Stephen M. Gold-fein, USAF director of operationalcapability requirements, was circum-spect in his praise. He said the muni-tion was “a little bit better” thanexpected.

Moseley put it in more concreteterms: “The average miss distanceon the JDAM has been about thelength of the bomb.” (JDAM is 10 to12 feet long, depending on the vari-ant.)

To be considered a “precision”weapon, a munition must be capableof hitting within 9.9 feet of the aimpoint. If it hits outside that circle,but closer than 66 feet, it is called a“near-precision” weapon. (Based onits specified circular error probableof 42.9 feet, that puts JDAM in thenear-precision class, despite its per-formance in combat.)

During OIF, coalition forces re-leased 29,199 bombs and missilesagainst Iraqi targets. About 68 per-cent of those munitions were guided.Of the overall total, 22.4 percentwere JDAMs, and 29.5 percent werelaser guided bombs. The next most-used munition was the unguided 500-pound Mk 82 general-purpose bomb.

In what has been described as aturning point in the war, the Iraqisfound that there is no safety in asandstorm. Late in March, coalitionaircraft, cued by E-8C Joint STARSradar airplanes, were able to attackIraqi forces either hunkered down ormarching through a sandstorm in thebelief that it was concealing them.They were wrong. While coalitionground forces slowed to a crawl, airattacks with JDAM systematicallydestroyed the Iraqi Republican Guardright through the storm.

A prime concern for the Air Force,

Laser guided bombs still edged out JDAMs as the most-used guided weaponsin Gulf War II and are as yet unmatched for accuracy. This is a GBU-28“bunker buster” LGB being released from an F-15E.

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Armed with lasers and handheld GPS units, Air Force controllers are able tocall in close air support strikes from 40,000 feet and hit targets that are merefeet away from their own positions with ground forces.

AIR FORCE Magazine / November 2003 47

as it developed its new weaponry,has been weapons that could limitany collateral damage.

Enemies know that they cannot“take us on” conventionally—becausethat’s “commonly not in their ball-park,” said Goldfein. “So the thingthey want to do is make things verydifficult for us, by putting targets indifficult places.” Those places maybe near schools, religious sites, orcivilian neighborhoods, all of whichoffer a high risk of collateral damage.

Going SmallerThe solution is to use smaller weap-

ons with less explosive effect, Gold-fein said. The weapons might havedelayed fuzes causing them to ex-plode underground, thus limitingdamage, or they might have no war-head at all but derive a destructiveeffect just from being dropped fromhigh altitude.

The latter tactic was used on oc-casion in OIF. So-called “concrete”bombs—inert training shapes fit-ted with real guidance kits—weredropped into areas where even a smallexplosion could have done too muchdamage to civilian structures nearby.The force of the bomb’s physicalimpact was sufficient in those casesto achieve the desired effect.

With a smaller munition—but one“very precise and very focused”—the question is whether you canachieve the same effect as with “alarger boom,” said Goldfein.

The Air Force believes the answeris yes. In late August, the serviceselected Boeing as the developer ofthe Small Diameter Bomb, whichlikely will be one of the primaryweapons for US airpower for thenext 20 years.

Initially, Boeing will produce about24,000 SDBs and 2,000 “smart racks”to carry them. Officials expect thosenumbers to go quite a bit higher. (Theinitial production run for JDAM was88,000 units, but the new productiontarget—amended several times in thelast two years—is now more than230,000.) The SDB is a 250-pound-class weapon. Four of them will hangfrom a smart rack fitted in place of acombat aircraft’s pylon that normallywould house a single 1,000- or 2,000-pound bomb. (Some aircraft will alsocarry them internally.)

The SDB will be a highly flexiblemunition because it can handle arange of dissimilar targets, accord-

Small Diameter Bombs (red) likely will become the most ubiquitous groundattack weapons in the arsenal. Shown here in an F/A-22, the SDB will qua-druple the number of targets each aircraft can hit on a single sortie.

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The company had to test the muni-tion against 14 representative tar-gets, Jaspering said. The toughesttest called for the SDB to penetratethree feet of steel-reinforced con-crete, while the easiest demonstrateda blast/fragmentation effect againsta softer target, such as rocket launch-ers and artillery.

The bomb will have wings that,after release from the aircraft, popout to provide a standoff range of upto 46 miles when dropped from alti-tude. It will be guided by an ad-vanced, antijam GPS-aided inertialnavigation system. It can further re-fine its GPS satellite location infor-mation by getting data from ground-based differential GPS units aroundthe world—giving the bomb an ac-curacy of within 13.2 feet.

Jaspering said that all the storesmanagement functions will be doneon the SDB’s rack itself, which hasits own avionics system and fourpneumatic weapon ejectors. Bothfeatures simplify aircraft integration,enabling it to work easily with vari-ous platforms.

The F-15E, in 2006, will be thefirst aircraft to receive SDB. Even-tually, nearly all combat aircraft inthe USAF inventory will be certifiedfor the weapon.

Before the SDB, though, USAF willfield another small, guided weapon—a JDAM-equipped 500-pound bomb.

In Gulf War II, the B-2 flew mis-

sions in which it dropped 80 Mk 82500-pound bombs against clusteredIraqi forces. Those bombs were un-guided. In September, USAF testeda B-2 dropping 80 of the 500-poundJDAM bombs. It worked. Gen. JohnP. Jumper, Air Force Chief of Staff,said of the test: “Each of these bombsguided to individual targets. Not onebomb was more than 10 feet awayfrom its target.” The service planssoon to certify the capability forB-2 combat operations. The stealthybomber will be able to strike—withnear precision—80 different targetson a single sortie.

The JDAM is also getting more ac-curate, according to Boeing’s JDAMprogram manager, Rick Heerdt.

Heerdt said that USAF has fundeda program to give all JDAMs selec-tive availability antispoof modulesand antijam electronics—capabili-ties that will make it harder to jam aJDAM trying to obtain position in-formation from GPS satellites. JDAMalso will be able to take advantage ofthe differential GPS system that SDBwill use, he added.

“JDAM will be as accurate as SmallDiameter Bomb,” Heerdt asserted.

Goldfein said the service acceler-ated the 500-pound JDAM buy, and,as a result of that, USAF will buy “alittle less” of the 2,000-pound ver-sion. “And, obviously, as SDB comeson, you’ll see additional adjustments”to the number purchased.

Another major advancement inContinued on p. 50

AIR FORCE Magazine / November 200348

precision attack—the Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile—beganoperational service on the B-52bomber in September.

Long-Range PenetratorThe objective for JASSM—a

stealthy, long-range missile—is topenetrate highly defended airspaceand hit fixed or moving high-valuetargets. It is meant to be fired welloutside enemy air defenses. A deci-sion to go into full-rate productionof JASSM was expected soon.

JASSM can autonomously fly anevasive route to a target more than230 miles away. It has a 1,000-poundpenetrating and blast/fragmentationwarhead and uses both GPS/INS and

Iraq—Munitions Expended

Guided 19,948Unguided 9,251Total 29,199

Unguided (32%)

Guided (68%)

USAF expects JASSM-ER to re-place the Conventional Air LaunchedCruise Missile, supplies of whichare dwindling with each new opera-tion. CALCMs were converted fromthe nuclear version AGM-86B ALCM,and, officials said, USAF has reachedthe end of its stock of ALCMs avail-able for conversion.

Two other new munitions—theJoint Standoff Weapon and the Wind-Corrected Munitions Dispenser—were also used successfully in GulfWar II.

The Navy is the lead service onJSOW, an unpowered, stealthy glidevehicle that dispenses submunitions.In 1999, shortly after the Navy de-clared it operational, the GPS/INS-guided weapon was used by aircraftpatrolling the southern Iraq no-flyzone to strike Iraqi air defenses. Itwas also used for Operation AlliedForce in the Balkans. JSOW is al-ready in full-rate production.

The Air Force plans to develop anadvanced version of the Wind-Cor-rected Munitions Dispenser. TheWCMD, first used in Afghanistan, isa tail kit attached to existing muni-tions, such as the sensor fuzed weap-ons, to make them steerable via INS.It also adjusts for windage on itsway down. The Air Force plans todevelop an extended-range WCMDby installing a wing set and GPS.

Small and PoweredLockheed Martin independently

developed the Low Cost AutonomousAttack System submunition, a small,powered missile—about three feet—that carries a laser-radar seeker in itsnose. Bigum said that LOCAAS canfly “for about 45 minutes,” loiteringover and scanning the target area. Ifit sees something that matches thetarget it’s been programmed to find,it attacks and, like JASSM, relays amessage to its launch aircraft that itis doing so.

Should it not find the target, or ifthe attack is aborted, Bigum said, theweapon will fly high and destroy it-self, rather than cause unintendeddestruction on the ground. At its self-destruct altitude, the blast dispersionfrom the small missile is so greatthere would be no risk to those below.

The Air Force now has fundedLOCAAS as a research project thatit has dubbed the Autonomous Wide-Area Search Munition. Initially, theservice expected to put three AWASMs

Extending the reach of bombers and fighters alike, the stealthy Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile is already available on the B-52. It will go after heavilydefended targets deep in enemy territory. (An F-16 flies chase during a test.)

an imaging infrared seeker for ter-minal guidance.

Like JDAM and SDB, JASSM’saccuracy will be improved by GPSenhancements. It also has a uniquefeature that the Air Force may incor-porate in its other high-value muni-tions, said Randall K. Bigum, Lock-heed Martin vice president for strikeweapons.

Just before impact, JASSM willfeed an image of the target back toits launch aircraft, said Bigum. Thiswill help war planners with the al-ways-vexing problem of bomb dam-age assessment. If JASSM calls inand shows that it’s about to hit thetarget, “it’s a pretty good bet” thattarget will be destroyed, he said.

With many other cruise missiles,there’s no feedback after the weaponhas left the launch area, so the AirForce has to wait for poststrike re-connaissance to find out if the targetwas destroyed. The call-back fea-ture will speed up the decision aboutwhether the target has to be struckagain.

Lockheed Martin also is develop-ing an extended-range version calledJASSM-ER. It will have “two to threetimes greater range,” Bigum said.Lockheed expects to add fuel capac-ity without changing the outer shapeof the missile, simply by changingthe packaging and the engine—nei-ther of which will slow certificationof the weapon. JASSM-ER shouldenter production in four years, withdeliveries the year after that.

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AIR FORCE Magazine / November 2003 49

Smaller, smarter, and able to loiter—that’s the future of PGMs. Lockheed Martin’stiny LOCAAS attacks in swarms and ignores targets other than its own. If it can’tstrike its designated target, it destroys itself in air, avoiding collateral damage.

LGB, JDAM, Mk 82 (71%)

All Other (29%)

Iraq—Most Popular Munitions

LGB 8,618 29.51%

GPS–JDAM 6,542 22.40%

Mk 82 5,504 18.85%

Mk 83 1,692 5.79%

M117 1,625 5.57%

Maverick 918 3.14%

GPS–WCMD 908 3.11%

TLAM 802 2.75%

Allied guided 679 2.33%

Hellfire 562 1.92%

HARM 408 1.40%

JSOW 253 0.87%

CBU-99 182 0.62%

CALCM 153 0.52%

Allied unguided 124 0.42%

CBU-87 118 0.40%

GPS–LGB 98 0.34%

Other guided 7 0.025%

Mk 84 6 0.021%

Total 29,199

Iraq—Munitions Use By Type

How Many PGMs USAFPlans To Buy

System Number

JASSM 2,853JASSM-ER 1,426

JDAM 240,882

JSOW 3,000SDB 24,000

WCMD 24,644

WCMD-ER 7,500

in one dispenser, but that plan maychange since tests of the weaponhave shown such high reliability.“You probably only need one pertarget,” Bigum said. (The AWASMproject has led the Air Force to con-sider adding a terminal seeker to theSDB, giving it the capability to searchthe target area for a moving object.)

Although there is no formal re-quirement for a weapon like LOCAASyet, Goldfein said, “I think that theability to get into a very difficult,anti-access area, to loiter and thenhave the sort of guidance where youcan find and geo-locate targets isclearly ... attractive.”

It is so attractive that USAF hasgiven Boeing a three-year contractto work on a similar idea—a 1,000-mile-range cruise missile that couldfit in the space of a 1,000-poundJDAM. Once over its target area, themissile would drop to low altitudeand begin a search of up to 15 min-utes to find its moving or relocatabletarget. It would carry three submu-nitions.

Goldfein believes USAF will finditself “with weaponry that has thatsort of ability.” One reason, he said,is that the “art of the possible helpsdrive your concept of operations.”He said another reason is one of the“likely lessons” from the global waron terror: USAF needs to be able tostrike moving targets with the samesort of precision it employs againstfixed targets. In many circumstances,“the ability to get at that fleeting,

moving target is going to be criti-cal,” said Goldfein.

Asked if weapons today—particu-larly through the employment of GPSguidance—are as accurate as theyneed to be, Goldfein hedged. On theone hand, he said, it would be “ex-tremely wise” for the Air Force totake advantage of miniaturized tech-nologies which could, in a few years,put multiple types of seekers on vir-tually all munitions, adding to theircapability and flexibility.

On the other hand, there is a pointin time when capabilities are “ex-ceeding your real need,” he said.“Clearly, we need to balance theavailable dollars and make sure wedon’t waste any.”

Goldfein also pointed out that theAir Force plans to ensure it is notexclusively dependent on GPS topreclude being shut down if a GPSjamming threat succeeds. The ser-vice must start thinking about oper-ating without GPS “just in case,” hesaid. “You wouldn’t want that to besuch a long pole in our tent that youcouldn’t act if there was some issuewith GPS.”

Now that most of the munitionsniches have been filled, Goldfeinsaid, the Air Force will shift empha-sis toward obtaining fine-grained,real-time battlefield knowledge toprovide the new munitions with tar-geting information. Without real-time information, he said, no matterhow good the weapon is, “it’s awaste.” ■

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