500-Lb. Precision Bombs Deployed By F-16s
Airmen employed a guided bomb unit-54 laser joint directed
attack munition August 12 against a moving enemy vehicle in the
Diyala province to support a combined Iraqi army and US Marine
operation.
The GBU-54 is the Air Force's newest 500-pound precision weapon,
equipped with a special targeting system that uses a combination of
Global Positioning System and laser guidance to accurately engage
and destroy moving targets. F-16 Fighting Falcons from the 77th
Expeditionary Fighter Squadron deployed the munitions.
"This employment first represents a great step in our Air
Force's ability to deliver precise effects across the spectrum of
combat," said Lt. Gen. Gary L. North, the US Air Forces Central
commander and US Central Commands Combined Force Air Component
commander. "The first combat employment of this weapon is the
validation of the exacting hard work of an entire team of
professionals who developed, tested and fielded this weapon on an
extremely short timeline, based on an urgent needs request we
established in the combat zone."
Identified as an urgent operational need in early 2007, the Air
Force completed the GBU-54's development and testing cycle in less
than 17 months, fielding it aboard 332nd Air Expeditionary Wing
aircraft in May.
"We have consistently used
precision-guided weapons to engage stationary threats with superb
combat effects," said Brig. Gen. Brian T. Bishop, the 332nd AEW
commander. "This weapon allows our combat pilots to engage a broad
range of moving targets with dramatically increased capabilities
and it increases our ability to strike the enemy throughout a much,
much broader engagement envelope."
Teamwork in all aspects from development to the actual weapon
employment was crucial.
"Teamwork was the name of the game to accomplish this," General
North said. "From the experts in our Air Force Materiel Command who
shaped our requirements, then developed, tested and fielded the
weapon, to our aircraft maintainers, our munitions Airmen, and
weapons loaders ... and everyone in between ... they made the
operational employment of this weapon possible.
"At end game, on August 12, the team of the joint terminal
attack controller, alongside his ground unit commander in this
event, ensured all criteria were met for the first combat delivery
of the (laser joint directed attack munition). And finally, our
F-16 pilot accurately and precisely delivered and guided the weapon
to desired weapons effects, the disabling and destruction of an
enemy vehicle and personnel," General North said.