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Precision Guided Munitions

Naval aviation ordinancemen tow a laser guided bomb (USN)

Naval aviation ordinancemen tow a laser-guided bomb on board a carrier. F/A-18 Hornet fighter in the background.

Upgraded Weapons

While air attacks alone cannot guarantee the destruction of deeply buried or hidden targets, U.S. fighters are now equipped with an array of sophisticated systems and weapons that are more accurate and deadly than those used against Iraq in 1991, military experts say.

The Pentagon has spent about $40 billion a year since 1991 enhancing its arsenal, which now boasts everything from a 5,000-pound "bunker buster" bomb to laser systems that can guide precision assaults on the most highly protected targets.

The new weapons promise more effective destruction -- and more safely and quickly than before.

A new generation of unmanned aircraft would significantly improve air surveillance, experts suggest, and new transport aircraft would simplify supporting a war in the Persian Gulf.

These assessments come seven years after Americans discovered following the gulf war that so-called smart weapons weren't as smart or as accurate as the Pentagon had claimed.

"We have improved the accuracy of our weapons and have developed more weapons that are capable of digging really deep holes". Recent changes in the F-16 fighter are a good example of how the United States has focused on developing weapons that are more accurate than those used against Iraq in 1991.

Based in Bahrain, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, most of the F-16s that would be used in Iraq are equipped with the so-called LANTIRN system, which improves the aircraft's ability to navigate at low altitudes and use lasers to guide bombs to a target.

U.S. aircraft at times struggled in bad weather in 1991, and experts say bombing attempts in the gulf war were not as accurate as the Air Force and Navy had hoped.

The Air Force also has assigned the F-16 the job of knocking out enemy radar stations and surface-to-air-missiles sites, using radar-seeking AGM-88 HARM missiles produced by Raytheon TI Systems. The F-4G Wild Weasel had this job in 1991, but wasn't as fast or agile as the F-16.

Raytheon also may see its new joint standoff weapon (JSOW) put to the test in Iraq. It is dropped from Navy F/A-18Cs at a distance from heavily defended targets and uses a highly accurate satellite-positioning system to guide its final approach. It is now in the gulf aboard aircraft on the USS George Washington. Use of the JSOW would give Navy pilots a greater capability to attack from long distances than they had in 1991.

The United States also intends to use the latest version of the ship-launched Tomahawk cruise missile, which carries a 1,000-pound titanium warhead that can penetrate walls before exploding. Since the gulf war, the Tomahawk's range has improved from 700 to 1,000 miles, and it uses a satellite-guidance system to attack a target more accurately. These weapons are fired from Navy submarines, cruisers and destroyers, such as the USS Annapolis attack submarine and the USS Bunker Hill, a guided-missile cruiser, both now stationed in the gulf. Another new version of the Tomahawk can be launched from an aircraft and travel up to 1,500 miles. It carries a 2,000-pound warhead designed to break through thick concrete barriers. Navy F/A-18Cs can fire the new Tomahawk.

An attack against Iraq also could bring the debut of the "bunker buster" bomb, designed to penetrate as much as 12 feet of concrete and destroy deeply buried targets. It would be dropped by Air Force F-15s flying from bases in Kuwait and Bahrain and be guided by lasers to its target.

New Smart Bombs

Bombs set to explode on the third floor of an underground bunker are among weapons developed at the EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Florida and they have now found their way to US forces in the Gulf.

Laser-guided "Bunker Buster" bombs, which can weigh up to 2,270 kilograms (5,000 pounds), look like thin missiles, about 584 centimeters (230 inches) in length. They can "destroy targets buried six, nine or even over 30.5 meters down (20, 30 or 100 feet), such as an arsenal or a military communications centre".

Dropped from a high altitude, the bombs, which have long cylindrical warheads, can determine their own rate of penetration through concrete and various densities of earth. Thanks to "very precise fuses (the bombs) can be set to go off, for example, after slamming through the third floor of an underground bunker."

In the face of threats posed by stocks of chemical or bacteriological weapons, which might be released into the atmosphere by ordinary bombing, the Air Force weapon development centre has come up with a new type of deep-penetration incendiary bomb designed to incinerate the target. Only one test has been carried out at a bunker.

Other types of ordnance developed here include missiles, which when dropped from the air divide into bomblets that automatically scan the battlefield with infra-red sensors before zooming off in persuit of a target, such as a tank.

In case of a strike against Iraq "these weapons will make a difference". Weapons are now tailored much more to specific threats, can hit multiple targets and have a much better "stand-off capability", allowing pilots to fire at the enemy from a greater distance. "What should worry an Iraqi commander is the surgical precision" of these new weapons.

The biggest difference between 1991 and today is that "now more aircraft have precision weapons" which allow them to score nearly one "kill" for every weapon used.

According to a senior Pentagon official, "easily 80 percent" of the Air Force bombs stockpiled for use in the Gulf are smart bombs. And unlike 1991, all US strike aircraft in the Gulf are now capable of delivering them.

"Smarter Weapons"

If the U.S. military attacks Iraq in a stalemate over U.N. arms inspections, it will use a "smarter" and more lethal arsenal of missiles and bombs than those which pounded Baghdad in the 1991 Gulf War.

An American force of more than 170 warplanes and some 20 ships in the region could strike with weapons ranging from satellite-guided Tomahawk cruise missiles to a bomb that is dropped and then glides nearly 50 miles (80 km) to its target. Also available are new 5,000-pound (2,268 kg) "bunker buster" bombs that ride a laser beam of bright light to blast their way through more than 12 feet (3.7 metres) of concrete and destroy underground military command centers.

"The new stuff is smarter -- more accurate and flexible. We hope that means less chance of hurting innocent civilians," a senior defense official told Reuters privately. Perhaps the biggest improvement since the war is in $1 million Tomahawk cruise missiles, which puttered live from U.S. ships, submarines and bombers across the world's television screens and into Baghdad on Cable News Network during the war. The new Block-3 version of the ship-fired Tomahawk has a longer range of 1,000 miles (1,609 km) and uses satellite positioning guidance along with a computer map brain for accuracy. It is tipped with a high-explosive warhead encased in super-strong titanium to penetrate walls, or releases 166 small "bomblets" to blast individual tanks and other targets.

The Tomahawk and the new joint standoff weapon (JSOW) bomb, which is so new that it isn't even in full production yet, can be used from afar without putting U.S. pilots at risk around heavily defended targets. The 1,065-pound (483 kg) JSOW, a number of which have been stored on the aircraft carrier Nimitz in the Gulf, is dropped by F-18 attack jets. It uses satellite positioning and movable tail fins to glide accurately to targets up to 50 miles (80 km) from the drop point. It knows where it is, where it is supposed to go and drives itself into the target.

The GBU-28 "bunker buster" is dropped from Air Force F-15E attack jets, but the service will not say whether the bombs are already in the Gulf. If Saudi Arabia refused permission for F-15Es to strike Iraq from bases in its territory, the planes could be flown from fields as far away as Lakenheath in Britain.

A smaller new bomb believed to be nearing development would explode and burn a target with tremendous, gas-fired heat in order to completely destroy biological toxins. The Air Force would like to mount that on bat-wing B-2 stealth bombers based at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri. They could be flown nonstop to bomb targets in Iraq.

New U.S. Navy Weapons

As the United States prepares for possible strikes against Iraq, Navy and Marine Corps pilots are set to fly the majority of missions in an operation that will hinge, by all accounts, on downpours of precision munitions.

Two factors explain the Navy's prominence this time. First, it has improved its weapons and cockpit-targeting systems substantially since the Gulf War, making wide use of laser guidance technology. And second, the Air Force has been handicapped by Saudi Arabia's resistance to letting U.S. land-based aircraft launch strike missions from its territory.

At the center of any U.S. air assault on Iraq would be the F/A-18C and F-14A fighter jets on the aircraft carrier USS Eisenhower, along with about 500 Tomahawk cruise missiles spread among eight other ships.

Their targets, in the words today of Marine Corps General Anthony Zinni, the commander of all U.S. forces in the Middle East, would be "the things that obviously allow [Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein] to stay in power, threaten his neighbors, threaten the use of weapons of mass destruction." These would be things like sites for producing or storing chemical or biological weapons, military command bunkers, communication networks and special Republican Guard units that provide security for the Iraqi leadership.

To reduce the risk of killing innocent Iraqis, and to pulverize some of Iraq's best-protected and most-hardened facilities, defense officials have indicated the airstrikes would rely largely on precision-guided munitions. These weapons feature infrared seekers or TV guidance systems that enable them to be steered to a target.

The Navy had relatively few of these at the time of the Gulf War but has stocked up on smart bombs since -- including 1,100-pound Walleyes, 1,400-pound Standoff Land Attack Missiles SLAMs and 2,000-pound GBU-24s. The two carriers in the gulf have more smart weapons between them than did the six carriers used in the 1991 war, according to Navy officials.

"We can go after smaller targets now, pinpointed areas, instead of the broad areas we went after before,". "The 1991 war was an Air Force show because they had more planes in-theater and because they were the PGM [precision-guided munitions] shooters. This time, we have more confidence in our equipment and tactics."

Not only have the Navy's bombs and missiles been improved, but its planes now carry more advanced targeting capability as well -- especially the F-14A, whose role in 1991 was limited to air-to-air combat. Now it can deliver smart bombs, too, using a laser-guidance system known as LANTIRN.

For all their upgrading, though, Navy strike aircraft still have limitations in range and bomb weight that make them poor substitutes for bigger Air Force planes. The Navy also has nothing to match the radar-evading capability of the Air Force's F-117A stealth jet or the payloads of the B-52 bomber, both of which would perform critical missions in any attack on Iraq.

Vice Adm. Thomas Fargo, commander of the U.S. Navy - Naval Forces in 5th Fleet, who has responsibility for the more than 21 U.S. warships now parked in the region.

In recounting the evolution of their aviation force since the gulf war, Navy officials remarked on efforts to coordinate better with Air Force operations in places like the Persian Gulf, where both services could have lots of aircraft in the air at the same time.

During the Gulf War, communications between the two services were poor. The "air tasking order," which assigns daily flight missions, had to be flown out to carriers from command headquarters in Saudi Arabia, causing delays and confusion. Now, such orders are transmitted instantaneously by computer between Air Force and Navy units.

Aircraft

US/Coalition:

Fighters

F-14 Tomcat (US Navy)

Official

Unofficial

F-15 Eagle (USAF)

Official

Unofficial

F-16 Fighting Falcon (USAF)

Official

Unofficial

F/A-18 Hornet (US Navy)

F/A-18 Hornet preparing for a catapult launch (USN)

Official

Unofficial

See the F-18 Hornet User page: (USN/USMC/RCAF/RAAF..)

Harrier (Royal Navy, USMC)

Official

Unofficial

Bombers/Ground Attack

A-10 Thunderbolt II

B-1B Lancer

B-2 Spirit

B-52 Stratofortress

F-117A Nighthawk

The US Air Force is advertising the availability of the B-2 stealth bomber for action in the Gulf if the US should strike Iraq.

"There are no restrictions for the use of the B-2," a senior Air Force official told reporters. In one sign the air force is angling for a role for the B-2, it has launched an accelerated program to modify the plane so that it can drop a 2,250 kilo (5,000 pound) precision bomb designed to destroy hardened underground bunkers.

An Air Force spokeswoman said completion of the modification was "imminent." But the radar evading B-2, which became operational a year ago after years in development and testing, has a serious image problem. It became the butt of jokes last year when the General Accounting Office, a congressional watchdog agency, issued a report suggesting that the B-2s radar evading skin melts in the rain. The lavish care and special shelters required to house the bomber means it cannot be based outside of the United States, limiting its value in sabre rattling exercises.

And the plane's 2.3 billion dollar cost is enough to make any commander think twice before risking it in a conflict short of a major war, military officials say. So the primadonna of US strategic bombers has stayed home while a procession of lesser aircraft -- ageing B-52s, B-1 bomber and numerous F-16s and F-15 fighters -- have made their way to glory in the Gulf.

Undaunted, air force officials are making the pitch that its nine operational B-2s are ready for the call of duty at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri, a couple of continents away from Baghdad. "The B-2 can come from home, and go right downtown like the F-117," said the senior air force official, referring to the stealth fighter that was used to bomb downtown Baghdad during the 1991 Gulf War. "It can do it from high altitudes and stay above a lot of the tripple A and the SAMs. It can be effective about what it can reach because of its stealth properties," he said. "All those qualities are just better, and it can carry everything from that 5,000 pounder, or it will, right down to these other weapons we've been talking about," he said.

The bomber currently can drop 16 900 kilo (2,000 pound) precision bombs at a time, using a global position guidance system to destroy 16 separate targets from an altitude of 12,200 meters (40,000 feet.) Or it can hug the terrain, flying at altitudes as low as 600 feet (200 meters). Its range, 6,000 miles (9,600 kilometers) without refueling, makes it able to strike Baghdad after flying non-stop from the continental United States. Anything the B-2 can do, however, can be done by smaller less expensive aircraft like the B-1 bomber, the F-117 or the F-15, air force officials concede.

 

Support Aircaft

E-2 Hawkeye

E-3 Sentry (AWACS)

EA-6B Prowler

E-8 Joint Stars

U-2R/U-2S

Iraq

Fighters

MiG-29

Official

Unofficial

Missiles

Air-to-air

AIM-54 Phoenix

AIM-120 AMRAAM

AIM-7 SPARROW

AIM-9 SIDEWINDER

Vympel: R-73 and several other missiles

(Try the page a couple of times, it doesn't always open at once)

Air-to-ground

AGM-130

HARM

Harpoon

SLAM

Maverick

Cruise Missiles

Joint Standoff Weapon System

Bombs

The US military has a new family of "bunker busting" bombs to choose from if it decides to strike Iraq's undergound command posts or buried caches of weapons of mass destruction, officials say.

Faced with deeply buried bunkers during the 1991 Gulf War, the US Air Force launched a crash program to develop bombs able to penetrate the earth and detonate underground. Since then, air force engineers have developed a variety of warheads and fuzes designed to get at buried targets with greater precision.

The most powerful is BLU-113, a penetrating warhead that saw action at the end of the Gulf War. It rides a 5,000 pound laser-guided bomb dropped by a F-15E fighter. The latest is called the Advanced Unitary Penetrator (AUP), a warhead for a 2,000 pound bomb that will plow twice as far through dirt and reinforced concrete as any existing bomb of that size, air force officials say. How deep these bombs go before blowing up is secret, however.

The AUP can go on any of the air force's 2,000 pound bombs, which gives commanders a broader choice of ways to deliver it. It can be used with the AGM-130, an air-to-surface missile that can be fired from an F-15E strike fighter and guided to a target up to 40 nautical miles away with either infrared or television guidance systems.

Laser guided bombs dropped by F-117 Stealth fighters, F-16 fighters and F-15s also can carry the new warhead. Besides the AUP, the air force has the BLU-109, another penetrating warhead designed for use with 2,000 pound bombs.

In addition to needing to penetrate to a certain depth, you need to be able to have (the bomb) go off when you reach that depth. So we have two new fuses in our inventory. The most innovative is the hard target smart fuse, which is being readied for full production. Besides detonating the warhead below ground, it will also let you count how many rooms you've gone through so you can have it go off in the first room, the second room, or the third room.

Already in production is another fuse called the Joint Programmable Fuse, built to survive the impact of hitting the earth from the highest altitude. Iit showed "unprecedented reliability" in tests, has gone into production and is available to the military. To deal with the problem of attacking underground chemical or biological weapons caches, the air force has come up with an incendiary bomb coupled with a penetrating warhead. Exploded underground, the incendiary bomb would generate intense heat to burn up the chemicals or biological agents released by the blast.

As tensions rise between the U.S. government and Saddam Hussein's Iraq, the U.S. Navy is beefing up its forces in the Persian Gulf region with a carrier battle group loaded with the latest ``smart weapons.''

Guided missiles and aircraft-dropped bombs that use advanced guidance systems to hit ground targets are called ``smart weapons.'' These high- tech weapons use laser guidance or global positioning systems (GPS) to pound strategic objectives with what the military has described in the past as pinpoint accuracy.

There are at least 200 Tomahawk cruise missiles ready to fire from U.S. ships in the Gulf, all of which are designated as ``smart.'' In addition, hundreds of smart bombs can be carried by airplanes. Presently, the aircraft carrier USS Eisenhower is cruising region.

Faced with an American public increasingly reluctant to see U.S. forces in harm's way, President Bill Clinton has opted several times in the past to fire unmanned Tomahawks at Iraqi targets rather than risk fighters or bombers over Saddam Hussein's airspace.

During the Gulf War, only 5 to 8 percent of the military's ordnance was classified as smart. Today, according to the Pentagon source, 40 to 50 percent of the U.S. Navy's weaponry in the Persian Gulf falls under that classification.

The accuracy of a Block II laser-guided Tomahawk cruise missile -- used extensively during the Gulf War and in subsequent strikes against Iraq -- can be hampered by weather and smoke. The newest Block III Tomahawks have GPS devices that are not so affected.

Sensors

Ships

Space
 

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Revised: tammikuu 02, 2006.