Sun, Jul 20, 2003
Designed to Limit Collateral Damage
Boeing's Small Diameter Bomb
(SDB) continued successful flight-testing this week with a release
from an F-15E at Eglin Air Force Base (FL). “This was the
most complete test of our entry in the SDB competition,
demonstrating all of the elements of the system,” said Dan
Jaspering, Boeing SDB program manager. “This test included a
weapon with a live fuze, mission planning, our support equipment,
and the four-place carriage system for the aircraft. The tests
verify that we will have a low-risk transition of the Boeing SDB
from this phase of the program into operational testing and
production.” Boeing received a $47 million contract from the
Air Force in September 2001 as one of two competitors for the
Component Advanced Development phase of the SDB program. Air Force
officials will select a single company to produce small diameter
bombs and carriage systems in the fall of 2003.
“With this flight we have completed, on schedule, our
tenth planned flight test,” said Jaspering. “However,
we realize risk is the number one criteria in the source selection
and has a direct affect on delivering a capability to the
warfighter in 2006. We intend to use the remaining time before
down-select to continue testing and further substantiate the Boeing
design.”
The objective of the Air Force’s SDB program is to provide
weapons, carriage system, and support infrastructure to improve
sortie effectiveness and to reduce collateral damage in target
area. A proprietary guidance system developed by Boeing enables the
extreme accuracy of the SDB. This accuracy improvement can also be
used by JDAM and other systems.
The Boeing SDB has a 250-pound class warhead with a range
considerably greater than 40 nautical miles. SDB uses a high
performance folding wing system to provide mission flexibility.
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