The powerful "Storm Piercing" bomb will soon be equipped on US fighters.
The StormBreaker smart bomb, capable of hitting targets regardless of the weather, is expected to be deployed by the US Air Force from 2019.
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StormBreaker bomb attached to F-15E fighter during testing earlier this year. Photo:Raytheon |
"The testing went so well that the Air Force wanted to accelerate the development and fielding of the Stormbreaker. It performed admirably under all the complex testing conditions we applied,"Militaryquoted Jim Meger, representative of Raytheon Missile Systems, said yesterday.
The GBU-53 "StormBreaker" is a small smart bomb weighing 125 kg, expected to be equipped on F-15E and F/A-18E/F fighters from 2019, while the F-35 stealth aircraft can only use this weapon from 2022.
Raytheon officials confirmed that the StormBreaker project has entered the operational testing phase, after achieving a 90% success rate during development testing. "We have conducted eight test bombings, the most recent of which was last week," Meger said.
StormBreaker is equipped with a millimeter-wave radar to track targets in all weather conditions, eliminating the limitations of traditional laser or electro-optical seekers, which are affected by storms. Each bomb is also equipped with a thermal imaging camera for target identification and a global positioning system (GPS). Raytheon also plans to attach a laser seeker to increase the bomb's accuracy when approaching the target.
The two antennas on the StormBreaker allow it to communicate with the aircraft via Link 16, allowing the pilot to send new data to the bomb, even after it has left the fighter. "The great thing is that the StormBreaker can search and identify targets for the pilot, instead of just hitting pre-existing coordinates," Meger revealed. He affirmed that this feature allows the StormBreaker to attack warships maneuvering at sea.
StormBreaker was developed from the GBU-39 Small Diameter Bomb (SDB) platform, a weapon that carries a small amount of explosives and has very high accuracy, helping to limit unintended damage, especially in densely populated areas. The difference is that the GBU-39 bomb does not have a seeker to track moving targets like StormBreaker.
"You can order a search for tracked vehicles. The bomb will scan a variety of different objects on the battlefield and lock onto the right target as required. This is a quantum leap in weapon capabilities," Meger declared.
