MISSILES & WEAPONS

AGM-86 Conventional Air-Launched Cruise Missile (CALCM)

What a mouthful! The Boeing website tells us that this is "an affordable, long-range missile that has been proven in combat by the U.S. Air Force. It is produced by converting surplus nuclear-armed AGM-86B missiles into the AGM-86C/D missile, which is the basis for CALCMs."

Powered by its own turbofan jet engine that propels the missile at "subsonic" speeds, the CALCM "deploys its folded wings, tail surfaces and engine inlet upon launch. Furthermore, "AGM-86D uses a penetrating warhead that can destroy buried or reinforced targets."



Brimstone Precision Guided Missile

An "improvement" on the original Brimstone missile, this one (the "Brimstone 2") "replaces the millimeter wave (mmW) radar seeker with a semi-active laser seeker (SAL) and the shaped-charge warhead with a blast fragmentation warhead."

But the Brimstone 2 is more than that. It is "a complete weapon system comprised of a launcher and three missiles."

According to Boeing’s website, this missile provides "stowed kill capability to today’s fighter aircraft."

The site also states, the "Brimstone 2 can be used in a variety of roles providing quick response and low collateral damage in today’s urban environments."

The missile is compatible with a wide range of air, land, and sea platforms. It can be mounted to fixed and rotary-wing aircraft, unmanned air vehicles, ships and ground vehicles. Basically anything heavy enough can house this missile.



Harpoon Block II

Boeing’s website says, the "Harpoon Block II expands the capabilities of the Harpoon anti-ship weapon. Harpoon, the world’s most successful anti-ship missile, features autonomous, all-weather, over-the-horizon capability."

The Harpoon is capable of being launched from the air, land, surface, and underground launch pads, and is able to execute both anti-ship and land-strike missions.

To strike targets on land and ships in port, "the missile uses GPS-aided inertial navigation to hit a designated target aimpoint. The 500-pound blast warhead delivers lethal firepower against a wide variety of land-based targets, including coastal defense sites, surface-to-air missile sites, exposed aircraft, port/industrial facilities and ships in port."

For anti-ship missions, such as open-ocean and near-land, "the GPS/INS eliminates midcourse guidance errors en route to the target area. The accurate navigation solution coupled with launch system improvements combine to offer better discrimination of target ships from islands, nearby land masses or other ships. These Block II improvements maintain Harpoon’s high hit probability against ships very close to land or traveling in congested sea lanes."

Customers:

28 countries are customers of the Harpoon missile, but Boeing’s website doesn't list them. One finds out rather easily that they are mainly allies of the US and the US itself, although, interestingly, China has just recently purchased 57 Harpoons for its air force.
More than 7,000 Harpoons have been produced, with work being performed at the Boeing facility in St. Charles, MO.



Harpoon Block III

The Harpoon Block III is identical to the Harpoon Block II, only a data link system is added in the Block III, providing "inflight target updates, positive terminal control, and connectivity with future network architecture, resulting in more control after the weapon is released."



Intercontinental Ballistic Missile Systems (ICBMS)

Boeing is a member of the US Air Force's ICBM Prime Integration team. It provides "services in ICBM guidance, flight controls, trainers, secure codes, ground subsystems, weapon systems testing, and systems engineering." In addition, Alliant Tech Systems provides "propulsion replacement and sustainment," while Lockheed Martin provides "weapon system control systems and re-entry systems."

ICBM Prime Integration activities are hosted at Boeing facilities, including those in:
- Anaheim, California
- Heath, Ohio
- Kent, Washington



Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM)

"The Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) is a low-cost guidance kit produced by Boeing that converts existing unguided free-fall bombs into accurately guided 'smart' weapons," writes the Boeing website.

What's in it that enables it to achieve such remarkable results? "A tail section that contains a GPS/Inertial Navigation System and body strakes for additional stability and lift."

Additional growth to the JDAM family of weapons includes:
-- Laser JDAM, the incorporation of a laser sensor that improves JDAM’s current near-precision accuracy to precision accuracy and facilitates prosecution of targets of opportunity (including moving targets)
-- JDAM Extended Range (JDAM ER), the incorporation of a low-cost wing set to extend JDAM?’ standoff range to greater than 40 miles, and the incorporation of JDAM guidance on other warheads such as naval mines, heavy penetrator warheads and new specialty warheads.

Customers:

Both the US Air Force and US Navy employ JDAM.

Its first operational use was during Operation Allied Force in the Balkans in 1999.

JDAM’s have also been used extensively in Operation "Enduring Freedom" (OEF) in Afghanistan and Operation "Iraqi Freedom" in Iraq.

The first international sale was made to Israel in 2000. Since then, 18 additional international customers have purchased JDAM kits. Among them US allies like Egypt and Pakistan.

The JDAM production team includes Honeywell Inc. (inertial measurement unit), Rockwell Collins (GPS receiver), HR Textron (tail actuator subsystem), Lockheed Martin Tactical Defense Systems (mission computer), Lockely (tail fairing), Enser and Eagle-Picher (battery), and Stremel (strakes and cable cover). Products like the JDAM are almost unquestionable when there are so many powerful stakeholders involved in its production.

According to the Boeing website, "the full-scale production decision (milestone III) for JDAM was made by the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) in March 2001. The full production rate was expected to exceed 1,000 kits per month by 2002. The DoD planned to buy 87,496 JDAM kits for use by the Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps under the production program that was expected to continue for more than a decade.

As a result of heavy usage during OEF, those plans changed and production numbers were extensively increased. In November 2004, Boeing delivered the 100,000th JDAM to the U.S. military. As of January 2007, Boeing has delivered more than 180,000 JDAM tail kits and still produces over 1,200 JDAM’s every month. The DoD now plans to procure about 217,000 JDAM kits in several configurations to fit the various warheads."



Standoff Land Attack Missile - Expanded Response SLAM-ER

A "highly accurate" cruise missile, this device is in demand by many international clients, among them is be South Korea, which purchased these missiles in 2005 to complete its F-15K program.

"It will greatly enhance the F-15K and further enable us in our efforts to deter war on the Korean peninsula," said South Korean Colonel Yoon-Sang Lee, director of the Republic of Korea's Air Force (ROKAF) Fighter Program Division. Clearly, a strategic purchase for the little country.

SLAM-ER is also the US Navy’s choice for surgical strike against valuable land targets and ships in port and at sea, with over 500 SLAM missiles in the US Navy arsenal having been retrofitted with the SLAM-ER upgrade.

According to the Boeing website, "an affordable inventory upgrade for the US Navy, SLAM-ER incorporates a number of improvements to the baseline SLAM, a derivative of the Harpoon anti-ship missile. These retrofit upgrades include planar wings to improve range and aerodynamic performance, an improved warhead to increase penetration and lethality against hardened targets, and software improvements that make it easier for the control aircraft to designate track on the target aimpoint.

While the missile is in flight, the GPS receiver/processor updates the missile’s inertial navigation system. This helps to ensure that the missile’s imaging infrared seeker is pointed directly at the target."

Interestingly, SLAM-ER is also the first missile that can be re-targeted after launch. With flex targeting, "the warfighter can assess the state of the primary target through the missile imaging infrared video display in the cockpit. If the primary target has already been destroyed, the missile can be re-directed through the weapon data link to another target miles away from the original planned target."

In addition to retargeting, a series of tests was conducted by the US Navy recently that will allow the SLAM-ER to attack land targets moving at highway speeds. Just an image of how deadly accurate this weapon can be.

In March 1995, the U.S. Navy awarded Boeing a $99.4 million contract for engineering and manufacturing development of the SLAM-ER program.

SLAM-ER received early operational capability in the summer of 1999 and verification testing was completed in March 2000. Full-rate production began in 2000.

When delivered to the US fleet in 2007, the capability will make SLAM-ER the first operational standoff weapon that can attack moving targets with (Boeing's words) "surgical" precision on land and at sea.



Small Diameter Bomb (SDB)

According to Boeing’s website, "the SDB system is the next generation of low-cost and low collateral-damage precision strike weapons for internal and external carriage ... The smaller size of these optimized weapons, coupled with the SDB 4-place carriage, enables more weapons to be carried on each aircraft smart weapon station," thus "improving mission effectiveness."

The Boeiing website also tells us, "in August 2003 (following a two-year competitive phase), the Air Force selected Boeing to develop and build the SDB System. SDB is currently in full rate production, the Air Force declaring initial operational capability in October 2006, and has been in combat use on the F-15E since October 2006. SDB integration on the F-22A, F-35, and F-16 is underway. Initial estimates are that the Air Force will procure at least 24,000 weapons and 2,000 carriages."