Boeing [BA] is developing a variety of sensors to enhance its popular Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM), its program manager said.
Boeing JDAM Program Manager Kerry Bush told Defense Daily in a phone interview recently the company is working on a laser sensor, a multi-mode sensor and a radar sensor to enhance the JDAM’s attractiveness in an era of budget austerity. The laser sensor (Laser JDAM) provides a modular laser sensor kit installed in the field to the front of existing JDAM weapons and adds flexibility to prosecute “targets of opportunity” including relocatable, moving and maritime targets, a company spokeswoman said.
Program Manager for Precision Strike Weapons, including Laser JDAM, Navy Capt. Carl Chebi told Defense Daily in an email the first full-rate production contract award for the Laser JDAM is expected for late-fourth quarter fiscal year 2012, or Sept. 30, pending the Navy’s final approval to move forward.
The multi-mode sensor takes the Semi Active Laser (SAL) used on Boeing’s Laser JDAM variant and combines it with a low-cost Imaging Infrared (IIR) sensor to provide the warfighter with an adverse weather capability to attack both fixed and moving targets on land or at sea, a spokeswoman said.
The multi-mode sensor is currently in the development phase and Boeing is preparing for flight with this capability by the end of 2013.
The radar sensor is a low-cost, level-of-effort sensor that can prosecute moving, maritime targets of opportunity in all weather conditions and is also currently in the development phase, according to a spokeswoman. Boeing and its suppliers are preparing for flight testing, the spokeswoman said, but a timeframe was not specified.
Boeing intentionally designed its JDAM kit so the product can mature with a variety of other technological upgrades, such as wing kits that can triple its range, improved immunity to Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) jamming and an all-weather radar sensor, it said in a statement. The JDAM kit is attached to “dumb” munitions so they can be precisely guided to ground targets by satellite coordinates, effectively making them “smart.”
Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) issued a $12.5 million contract to Boeing in March for 1,116 of its Laser JDAM sensors, a company statement said.
The JDAM kit is used with four types of warheads: The 500-pound MK-82, the 1,000-pound MK-83, the 2,000-pound MK-84 and the blast penetrator warhead BLU-109.