Small Diameter Bomb II from Raytheon engaged and destroyed target
NewsJuly 19, 2012
WHITE SANDS, N.M. The GBU-53/B Small Diameter Bomb II (SDB II) from Raytheon Missile Systems in Tucson, Ariz., engaged and hit a moving target as part of a flight test at the White Sands Missile Range, N.M. The SDB II is designed to take out moving targets in hazardous weather and through battlefield obscurants.
A U.S. Air Force F-15E fighter crew out of Holloman Air Force Base, N.M., released the bomb, which then acquired, tracked, and guided toward a moving target via its tri-mode seeker, resulting in a direct hit.
SDB II can defeat threats such as mobile air defense systems, swarming boats, or armored targets, says Harry Schulte, Raytheon Missile Systems Vice President of Air Warfare Systems.
SDB II – which is currently in engineering and manufacturing development -- also can hit targets from stand-off ranges and has a warhead that can destroy armored targets, while keeping collateral damage at a minimum via a small explosive footprint.
The bomb has three primary attack modes - each with a subset mode, for a total of six engagement modes. It also has a dual band, two-way weapon data link for in-flight target updates and status reporting that enables post-launch control of the weapon by the launching aircraft, a Joint Terminal Attack Controller (JTAC), or another third party.
SDB II's integrated tri-mode seeker fuses millimeter-wave (MMW) radar, uncooled imaging infrared (IIR), and semiactive laser sensors on a single gimbal, thus enabling the bomb to seek and destroy targets, even in adverse weather conditions. Rockwell Collins supplies Raytheon with the data link, while General Dynamics-Ordnance and Tactical Systems provides the multi-effects warhead.
