The loss of 38 coalition combat aircraft to enemy fire over Iraq and Kuwait during the Gulf War convinced most western air forces that sending manned aircraft up against fully alerted air defences could be prohibitively expensive in aircraft and pilot losses. This forced the acceleration of a number of projects to field long-range precision-guided munitions (PGM) that had the capability to destroy enemy targets without the need for launch aircraft to penetrate the envelopes of enemy air defence systems.
Some of these weapon systems were put to the test during the Gulf and Bosnian conflicts by US and allied aircraft that had varying degrees of success. European air forces are just starting to develop true long-range air-launched strike capability and it will be several years before their weapons will be used in frontline service.
Air-launched strike PGMs have evolved considerably since the USAF first used laser-guided bombs (LGBs) during the Vietnam War. The LGBs used then were standard iron or dumb bombs fitted with moveable fins that responded to directions from a seeker head unit. The seeker depended on laser light reflected off the target by a designator pod to guide the bomb. To work effectively the bomb had to be dropped or tossed into a very narrow cone of sky around the target, otherwise the seeker would not be able to detect the laser and guide the bomb. These LGB kits cost only a few thousand dollars and the Texas Instrument family of Paveway LGBs have been used successfully by US forces in action in Vietnam, Libya, the Gulf and Bosnia. British and French forces also used the Paveway series and their own versions in the Falklands, the Gulf and Bosnia. The Russians used them in Afghanistan and Chechnya.
| The McDonnell Douglas AGM-84E SLAM has been used in action in the Gulf and Bosnia |
LGBs provide a limited stand-off capability of hitting targets up to three or four kilometres from a launch aircraft. This enables launch aircraft to avoid light anti-aircraft artillery fire but leaves them vulnerable to surface-to-air missiles. To provide extended range and a greater margin of safety, the Americans began to develop the GBU-15, a so-called glide bomb that had large folding wings so it could fly for up to 28km. They are fitted with electro-optical or television cameras so a launch aircraft's pilot can control the bomb by radio signals. By adding a rocket motor Rockwell turned the GBU-15 into the AGM-130 and extended its range to over 74km.
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British next-generation long precision-guided weapons, the BAe/Matra Storm Shadow, will be launched from Tornado, Harrier, Sea Harrier and Eurofighter aircraft
BAe |
Fully powered missiles from long-range precision-strike missions were slow to be fielded because of the cost and pre-occupation of western forces with nuclear-attack missiles. The US Navy led the way in the 1960s with its short-range AGM-62 Walleye electro-optical-guided missile.
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A Rockwell GBU-15/ AGM-130 being test launched from a Lockheed Martin F-16
ROCKWELL |
In the late 1980s it modified its radar-guided anti-ship McDonnell Douglas harpoon missile for land attack, under the AGM-84 stand-off land attack missile (SLAM) programme, to produce a weapon with a 105km range. Target co-ordinates are programmed into the missile and a global-positioning systems (GPS) link confirms the missile is on course during flight. In the final phase of its flight an electro-optical seeker head allows the pilot in the launch aircraft to make final course adjustments to ensure the missile is on target.
In the late 1980s the USAF took delivery of conventionally armed Boeing AGM-86B air- launched cruise missiles (ALCMs) that can hit targets up to 2,000km from the launch aircraft using a highly accurate terrain-following radar. So-called Stealth AGM-129 advanced cruise missiles (ACMs) entered the USAF service in 1990. Made by Hughes, primarily they are nuclear-armed with a range of up to 3,000km but can be fitted with conventional warheads. The AGM-86B can be launched from the Boeing B-52 and Rockwell B-1B but the AGM-129 is used by B-52s only. Both these weapons lacked terminal guidance so the USAF took measures to purchase a precision-guided weapon with this capability for its strategic bombers. The Israeli-designed Rafael Popeye missile (known as AGM-142 Have Nap) in US service was purchased in the early 1990s. It has a range of more than 93km and electro-optical and infra-red terminal guidance. The Hughes BGM-109 tomahawk land attack missile (TLAM) at one time was offered to the US military as an air-launched weapon but has been used in submarine-launched mode only.
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The Texas Instruments JSOW will be compatible with all types of US and allied fighter TEXAS INSTRUMENTS |
The US military is in the process of fielding a new generation of PGMs to take it into the 21st century. Lockheed-Martin and McDonnell Douglas are competing to produce 2,400 joint air-to-surface standoff missiles (JASSM) and will produce draft designs for a long-range conventionally armed cruise missile over the next two years.
The Pentagon also is in the process of fielding by 2002 the Texas Instruments AGM-154 joint stand-off weapon (JSOW), a glide weapon with a range of 74km. It features guidance systems but is primarily designed to deliver a variety of sub-munitions or cluster warheads.
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The French Apache undergoing tests on a Rafele MATRA/DASSAULT |
Much effort is being put into developing GPS guided bombs that work along the same lines as the LGB concept. These involve fitting $25,000 GPS seeker head units to standard Mk80-series iron bombs to enable signals for the navigation satellite system to guide bombs to within three metres of their targets. Termed the joint direct attack munition (JDAM), McDonnell Douglas and Lockheed Martin are involved in initial work on the project that will produce kits for up to 50 per cent of the US bomb inventory. The 2,000lb bomb version is designated the GBU-29 and the 1,000lb version the GBU-30. Fielding to operational units will begin in 2000 and the Americans will make one third of production available to allied air forces. An emergency programme also is underway to field GPS-aided munitions (GAMs) before that date although they will not have the capability of the JDAM.
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The McDonnell Douglas Grand SLAM lost out in the British CASOM contest MCDONNELL DOUGLAS |
The main producers of PGMs in Europe are British Aerospace (BAe) and GEC-Marconi in the UK and Matra and Aerospatiale in France. The newly merged Matra-BAe Dynamics won the UK government's competition in summer 1996 to provide the Royal Air Force and the Royal Navy in the UK with a conventional stand-off missile (CASOM) that is their Storm Shadow version of Matra's Apache missile. The basic version of the missile armed with sub-munitions has a range of 150km and is to be used by the French and German air forces on Mirage 2000, Rafale and Tornado strike aircraft. An extended-range version Apache C can hit targets at 400km. The British Storm Shadow and French Emploi General versions of the Apache are designed as precision-strike weapons against hardened targets. The Storm Shadow deal looks set to take place and this will enable Matra and BAe to merge missile operations into one business.
GEC-Marconi has developed its own family of LGBs for the United Arab Emirates. It is called the Hakim and includes a rocket-assisted version with a range of 70km.
Aerospatiale produced France's supersonic air-launched ASMP nuclear stand-off missile that has a range of 300km and recently offered for sale a conventionally armed version, the ASMP C. The company's short range AS-30L laser-guided missile has been employed successfully in both the Gulf and Bosnian conflicts.
Sweden's SAAB has produced the RBS-15 anti-ship missile for the Royal Swedish Air Force and is proposing to modify it for land attack. Germany's DASA and Sweden's Bofors are developing the KEPD 250 as a powered precision-guided dispenser weapon based on the DWS 30 dispensers system.
Outside NATO the main producers of long-range precision-guided weapons are Israel, Russia and China, although the latter's capabilities are unclear.
Israel's defence industry has developed the Popeye that is in Israeli and US service and an extended range version, Popeye 2, is in development. A 200km-range land-attack version of the Israeli Aircraft Industries' (IAI) Gebriel missile has been cancelled.
Chinese missile developments are centred on the HY-4 and YJ-2 missiles that are radar guided and have ranges of between 120km and 150km.
| The Matra BGL demonstrates its effectiveness. The weapon is similar in concept to the Paveway LGB MATRA/CEL |
Russia's missile design bureaux (OKB) have been in a state of limbo since the demise of the Soviet Union and new designs have not been put into production. The Russian air force uses two types of guided bomb. The KAB-1500L is a laser-guided weapon with a 1200kg warhead and the KAB-500 is a guide bomb with an electro-optical/infra-red aimed bomb. These were used in Afghanistan and Chechnya.
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Matra Apache delivering sub-munitions in an airfield strike mission MATRA DEFENSE |
The main Russian PGM design bureaux, the Raduga and Zvezda OKBs, dominated long-range missile production in the final years of the Soviet Union and their products remain in frontline service. At the short end of the range band is the Kh-59 Ovod (AS-13 Kingpost) that uses inertial and electro-optical terminal guidance to hit targets up to 60km from Su-17/22/24/25 or MiG-27 launch aircraft. A long-range version, the Kh-59M Ovod-M, has been developed for Sukhoi SU-24 and SU-34 strike aircraft. It is broadly equivalent to the US SLAM. The Kh-500 (AS-15 Kent) is a 3,000km-range terrain-following radar-guided cruise missile similar to the US AGM-86B. It is used on strategic bombers such as the Tupolov Tu-95 and Tu-26.
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Matra Apache being tested on a Mirage 2000 CEV ISTRES/MATRA DEFENSE |
Long-range PGMs are key weapons for any air force that wishes to carry out strategic strikes in war-time rather than be relegated to tactical battlefield support roles. The possession of such weapons will define the nature of modern air forces.
