Smaller But Accurate
Written by Peter Buxbaum
MSMF 2009 Volume: 2 Issue: 5 (October)
New rules of engagement designed to minimize collateral damage have governed U.S. forces in Afghanistan since early in the summer of 2009, when General Stanley McChrystal took command of NATO and U.S. forces in Afghanistan. Safeguarding the civilian population has now taken priority over neutralizing enemy combatants in that nation.
This evolved emphasis in the U.S. mission in Afghanistan has meant that warfighters are demanding the delivery of smaller munitions when air power is called in to support ground operations. At the same time, dwindling military budgets means these capabilities must be delivered on a shoestring.
U.S. Navy and Air Force efforts to supply air-toground weapons in support of operations in Afghanistan have emphasized responsiveness to warfighter requirements together with budgetary frugality. One key attribute required of small air-to-ground missiles, to ensure they do the damage expected of them, is accuracy. To that end, the U.S. military is updating existing weapons to include advanced sensor and guidance systems.
REDUCING COLLATERAL DAMAGE
“Small warheads reduce collateral damage,” said Lieutenant Colonel Andrew Spires, head of weapons and tactics at the Air Combat Command, “but if the target is not hit precisely, they don’t cause much damage at all.”
Smaller munitions, with more circumscribed fragmentation patterns and reduced potential for collateral damage, also allow U.S. ground forces to engage the enemy at closer range. “Warfighters want to be close to the enemy, and they want air support that ensures that the bad guys get hit and the good guys don’t,” said Captain Mat Winter, program manager at the U.S. Navy’s Precision Strike Weapons Program Office (PMA- 201).
“There has been a lot of focus on making weapons smaller to reduce collateral damage,” added Carl Avila, director of advanced weapons and missiles at Boeing Phantom Works in St. Charles, Mo. “Making smaller weapons presents challenges to improve accuracy and to get the right lethality out of the warhead to kill the target and only the target.”
Another implication of the current era of close-in combat has been the requirement to reduce the time between calling in an air strike and delivering metal on target. This, said Avila, has placed greater emphasis on developing weapons that can be placed on unmanned aerial vehicles, which can loiter over the battlefield and deliver a munition when and where it is required.
Thus, the MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper are carrying AGM-114 Hellfire missiles over Afghanistan, according to Spires. “The MQ-1 has an attack capability, but is more of an ISR asset,” he said. “The MQ-9 is operated more as a strike/interdiction platform. The MQ-1 sits around sucking up pictures and deploys a missile as required. The MQ-9 is used primarily to deploy ordinance on targets.”
At PMA-201, acquisition experts have developed a strategy of modifying “current capabilities at reduced cost,” said Winter, “resulting in a marked step increase in capabilities for warfighters.” Central to this strategy is the “spiral-to-threat” approach through which “we refine requirements, look at the capabilities we have available to meet those requirements, lay out spiral capability developments based on the threat the warfighter has to face, and then ensure that we can modify that capability in a spiral fashion as the threat changes.”
For example, PMA-201, along with the Naval Air Warfare Center-Weapons Division, China Lake, developed the BLU-126/B, also known as the Low Collateral Damage Bomb (LCDB), as a modification of the BLU- 111, 500-pound general purpose bomb. The developers removed a portion of the high-explosive fill from the bomb casing, resulting in a reduced fragmentation pattern and blast radius.
Using the same BLU-111 casing reduced the costs of aircraft integration and verification testing. LCDB also uses the same guidance kits, including the laser-guided bomb kits (LGB), dualmode laser-guided bomb kits (DMLGB), and Joint Direct Attack Munition kits (JDAM), as the BLU- 111.
“The acquisition team generated the strategy and technical solution within three months,” noted Winter, “and we got the weapon out to warfighters in 13 months.”
The LCDB is used when aircraft can fly within 20 miles of the target. The weapon was first used in Iraq in July 2007.
The Dual-Mode Laser-Guided Bomb, also a direct strike munition, is another example of the modification of a legacy weapon to enhance current capabilities. The DMLGB adds an Inertial Navigation System/ Global Positioning System (INS/GPS) guidance capability to provide legacy laser-guided bombs with an all-weather guidance system. “By modifying current inventory rather than developing a new weapon, the team has streamlined qualification time lines, reduced life cycle costs and to put a new weapon capability in the warfighter’s hands faster,” said Winter.
DMLGB achieved initial operational capability in early 2008 and final deliveries were made in June 2009. The weapon has been integrated on the F/A-18 fighter and the AV-8B Harrier II; future integration is planned for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.
The Direct Attack Moving Target Capability (DAMTC) has, in its first phase, retrofitted current JDAM kits to add a moving target engagement capability. This has been accomplished by strapping a laser designator to the front end of the weapon and a GPS device to its tail. A second phase, currently in the process of being competed, will do the same for inventory LGBs and DMLGBs.
“Current precision strike weapons guidance kits are very effective against stationary targets,” said Winter. “DAMTC will modify precision strike weapon kits so the warfighter will also be able to engage moving targets such as armored personnel carriers and tracked vehicles. The software will engage the target so the pilot can fire and forget. This has come in response to an emerging, real-time requirement identified by warfighters.” The Navy expects to acquire 7,000 of the DAMTCs over the next three years.
PMA-201 is also working on networked-enabled weapons that are focused on providing standoff launch capabilities of between 50 and 150 miles of the target. The strategy emphasizes adding data links to existing weapons systems.
“It makes operational and business sense to allow warfighters to talk to weapons to provide targeting data to them after they have left the aircraft, so that they can have the latest coordinates to make sure they hit their targets,” said Winter.
“In the future everything will need a data link,” added Harry Schulte, vice president for air warfare systems at Raytheon Missile Systems. “Warfighters will want to be able to talk to everything they shoot.”
The Joint Standoff Weapon (JSOW) C-1 and the Standoff Land Attack Missile—Expanded Response (SLAM-ER) are two examples of PMA-201’s efforts in this area.
The JSOW C-1 upgrades the veteran JSOW weapon by providing the capability to strike moving land and maritime targets. JSOW C-1 will integrate a Link-16 secure, jam-resistant, highspeed digital tactical data link allowing receipt of in-flight target updates. Link-16 is a network that carries a series of protocols and standard messages generated and transmitted by Link-16 capable network nodes.
The JSOW C-1, a glide weapon, will provide up to 70 miles of standoff and allows warfighters to direct, through the integration of a 5-inch cubed radio, as many as eight different turns, if necessary, during the JSOW’s 10 to 15 minutes of flight time to ensure that the weapon hits its target. The JSOW C-1 is expected to be fielded in fiscal year 2011.
The SLAM-ER is a long-range air-launched strike missile capable of attacking fixed and moving land and maritime targets. SLAM-ER was recently upgraded allowing it to automatically track and engage high-value, land moving targets. “This represents a huge increase in capability at very reduced cost,” said Winter. “It was just a question of updating the software. There was nothing to build, and there is no new hardware.” SLAM-ER is currently integrated on the F/A-18 A-D and F/A-18 E/F.
The Air Force is also modifying existing capabilities to suit the current needs of warfighters for smaller munitions. The Army’s Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System (APKWS), which is currently deployed on Cobra helicopters, is being modified to be integrated on faster moving aircraft such as the Air Force’s A-10 Thunderbolt ground attack and F-16 Fighting Falcon multipurpose aircraft.
“We are undergoing a modification process to get the APKWS up to Air Force standards so we can deploy it from our platforms,” said Spires. “We have a requirement for a weapon with this capability, and it will be cheaper to incorporate an existing weapon so we don’t have to pay testing and developmental costs.”
Other air-to-ground capabilities currently on the drawing boards include an effort spearheaded by Raytheon to add a small turbo engine to the JSOW, according to Schulte. “This would give the weapon an additional standoff range of up to 300 nautical miles,” he said. “This won’t change the aerodynamics, weight and center of gravity of the weapon.” Raytheon expects to demonstrate the capability by October of this year.
Raytheon is also in the process of developing its proposal for the upcoming competition for the Air Force’s Small Diameter Bomb—2. “The SBD-2 program,” said Schulte, “is calling essentially for a lightweight inexpensive cruise missile that can hit moving targets in all kinds of weather.”
To meet those requirements, Raytheon’s proposal will feature a GPS-guided tri-mode seeker, featuring cloud-penetrating radar, image-generating infrared sensors and a laser designator. The weapon, which will weigh less than 300 pounds and be equipped with a 40-pound payload, will have a 500-mile range and will be equipped with a data link to accommodate in-flight target updates. SBD-2 is expected to be integrated on the F-16 and the Air Force’s B-52 bomber.
“This is an example of lessons learned in Iraq and Afghanistan,” said Schulte. “The military is looking at future weapons that produce low levels of collateral damage and that are able to go after moving targets.” The smaller munition combined with network enabled guidance are the key features that will enable weapons to fulfill those requirements.
RAMJETS AND BEYOND
MBDA, the European missile developer, is doing some advanced concept investigations for the U.S. Navy on affordable weapons programs, which could be applied to the air-to-ground missile arena. MBDA was created in December 2001, after the merger of the main missile producers in France, Italy and Great Britain, EADS, Finmeccanica and BAE Systems. MBDA recently re-organized its U.S. unit and appointed Jerry Agee, a former Northrop Grumman executive, to head it.
“The affordable weapons programs would provide precision guided munitions in the broadest sense,” said Agee. Agee said MBDA is currently canvassing its capabilities, both in the U.S. and in Europe, to see how it can best participate in U.S. air-to-ground missile programs. The company currently supplies the wing subsystem for the small diameter bomb and also designed and developed the al-Hakim short range air-to-ground cruise missile, which has been integrated on the F-16 for the United Arab Emirates air force.
One MBDA capability with potential for introduction to the U.S. military is its ramjet engine, which has already been incorporated in operational European missile systems. “It is not a concept; it is a capability,” said Agee. “But the ramjet is not operational on any U.S. system. We are looking at the potential of introducing ramjets in the United States, but that will also require working with customers on the other side of the Atlantic to hammer out agreements on the transfer of technology.”
The ramjet is a small, powerful engine known for its ability to maintain full speed, thrust and maneuverability to the edge of its range. Agee also foresees the possibility of incorporating MBDA’s Meteor missile on the Joint Strike Fighter.
The current emphasis on focused lethality has also given rise to the idea of providing directed nonlethal air-to-ground capabilities. Just as the current focus is on minimizing the loss of non-combatant lives, this new thrust seeks to be able to disable, without destroying, strategic infrastructures.
“You might want to take down a communications network such as a telephone system without causing large collateral damage,” said Boeing’s Avila. “You might want to take down communications nodes that you want to be functional later, after the conflict.”
Boeing is investigating, on behalf of the U.S. Air Force, applying high-power microwaves and high-energy lasers for these types of tasks. “Those types of capabilities,” said Avila, “will provide the opportunity to strike targets that are not strikeable with traditional, conventional munitions.” ♦