McDonnell Douglas (MDC) is discussing the sale of its Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) with France, Germany and the UK, as flight-testing of the weapon gets under way in the USA. The first fully guided flight of a Mk84 900kg bomb equipped with the JDAM inertial-navigation/global-positioning (INS/GPS) guidance tail-kit is due this month.
Development flight-testing is scheduled to continue into 1997, mainly using the Lockheed Martin F-16, although guided flights are planned to begin in December on the MDC F-18 and in January 1997 on the Northrop Grumman B-2. Tests of the JDAM tail-kit on the BLU-109 900kg penetrator bomb are planned for later this year, says Bob Kreiger, general manager of MDC's Missile Systems division. A decision on low-rate production of 937 kits, is scheduled for the second quarter of 1997 and MDC has contract options, to build 20,000 units over five years, to be carried by US Air Force Boeing B-52Hs and Rockwell B-1Bs, as well as Lockheed Mar-tin F-16s and B-2s and US Navy F-18s. Average unit price for the tailkit will be $18,000.
MDC is talking to Daimler-Benz Aerospace about integration of the Mk84 JDAM on the Panavia Tornado, he says, while discussions are under way with France and the UK on repackaging the INS/GPS guidance system for use with their iron bombs.
The JDAM is designed to provide a delivery accuracy to within 13m (40ft), including target-location error.
Source: Flight International
