Air Force asks RTX Raytheon for StormBreaker smart munitions with multimode seeker and imaging infrared
EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. – Smart munitions experts at RTX Corp. will provide the U.S. military with additional GBU-53/B StormBreaker radar- and infrared-guided air-to-ground glide bombs under terms of a $282.3 million contract announced in December.
Officials of the U.S. Air Force Life Cycle Management Center at Hill Air Force Base, Utah, are asking the RTX Raytheon segment in Tucson, Ariz., for additional munitions in GBU-53/B production lot 11.
The 208-pound StormBreaker is six to seven inches in diameter. Eight of these smart weapons can fit in the F-35’s confined internal weapon bays. If stealth is not a factor, about 16 more can fit on the F-35's wings.
Moving targets in bad weather
The GBU-53/B, previously known as the Small Diameter Bomb II, is an air-to-ground smart weapon with multimode seeker can hit moving targets in bad weather. The winged munition autonomously detects and classifies moving targets in darkness, rain, fog, smoke or dust.
The smart munition for guidance uses millimeter wave active radar homing, semi-active laser guidance, infrared homing with an uncooled imaging infrared camera, GPS-coupled inertial guidance, and radio data-links back to the aircraft.
Its millimeter-wave radar detects and tracks targets through weather; imaging infrared provides enhanced target discrimination; and its semi-active laser enables the weapon to track a laser designator on the aircraft, or on the ground.
Tri-mode seekers
The tri-mode seekers share targeting information among all three modes to engage fixed or moving targets any time, and in any weather. The weapon can also fly more than 45 miles to strike mobile targets.
The GBU-53/B smart munition can launch from the F-35 Lightning joint strike fighter, and from the F-15E Strike Eagle and F/A-18 Super Hornet jet fighter-bombers.
On this order RTX Raytheon will do the work in Tucson, Ariz., and should be finished by March 2029. For more information contact RTX Raytheon online at www.rtx.com/raytheon, or the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center www.aflcmc.af.mil.
John Keller | Editor-in-Chief
John Keller is the Editor-in-Chief, Military & Aerospace Electronics Magazine--provides extensive coverage and analysis of enabling electronics and optoelectronic technologies in military, space and commercial aviation applications. John has been a member of the Military & Aerospace Electronics staff since 1989 and chief editor since 1995.
