Boeing gets another order for 1,496 precision laser guidance kits for JDAM smart munition
PATUXENT RIVER NAS, Md., 24 April 2013. The U.S. Navy is ordering 1,496 laser guidance kits to enable the Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) to destroy moving targets under terms of an $17.7 million contract modification announced late last week from the U.S. Naval Air Systems Command at Patuxent River Naval Air Station, Md.
The Navy is awarding the electro-optics contract modification to the Boeing Co. Defense, Space & Security segment in St. Louis to exercise an option for the full rate production of 1,496 DSU-38/B Precision Laser Guidance Sets (PLGS) for the Navy, the U.S. Air Force, and the governments of Saudi Arabia and Japan.
The contract is for 509 JDAM laser-guidance kits for the Navy, 463 for the Air Force, 496 for Saudi Arabia, and 28 for Japan. The Air Force and Navy procure JDAM together. Just last month Boeing won an $11.4 million contract modification to provide 1,001 JDAM laser guidance kits for the Air Force.
The contract breakdown is $5.6 million from the Navy, $5.1 million from the Air Force, $6.7 million for Saudi Arabia, and $375,970 from Japan. Boeing will do the work in St. Charles, Mo., and should be finished by February 2015.
The JDAM is a guidance kit that converts unguided bombs into all-weather smart munitions with integrated inertial guidance systems coupled to a Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers.
The DSU-38/B PLGS kit adds a laser seeker to the nose of a JDAM equipped bomb, which gives it the ability to engage moving targets with the aid of laser designators trained on the target from the air or from the ground.
The PLGS kit consists of a laser seeker and a wire harness fixed under the bomb body that connects the seeker with the JDAM's tail assembly that has control surfaces that steer the munition to its target. tailkit. The dual guidance system retains the ability to operate on GPS/INS alone if laser guidance is unavailable.
The JDAM has a range of more than 15 nautical miles, and its laser guidance kit has been in use since 2008. Boeing has been in full-rate production of the JDAM laser-guidance kits for the Navy since last year.
JDAM-equipped bombs range from 500 to 2,000 pounds. Aircraft able to carry the JDAM include the F-15E Strike Eagle; F-16C Fighting Falcon; CF-18 Hornet; F/A-18A+/C/D Hornet; F/A-18E/F Super Hornet; F-22 Raptor; F-35 Lightning II; MQ-9 Reaper; Mitsubishi F-2; Panavia Tornado; Mirage F-1; Eurofighter Typhoon; Saab JAS 39 Gripen; and A-29 Super Tucano.
For more information contact Boeing Defense, Space & Security online at www.boeing.com/bds, or Naval Air Systems Command at www.navair.navy.mil.
John Keller | Editor
John Keller is editor-in-chief of Military & Aerospace Electronics magazine, which provides extensive coverage and analysis of enabling electronic and optoelectronic technologies in military, space, and commercial aviation applications. A member of the Military & Aerospace Electronics staff since the magazine's founding in 1989, Mr. Keller took over as chief editor in 1995.
