By Marina Malenic
The laser-guided Joint Direct Attack Munition (LJDAM) was used in combat for the first time in Iraq last month, the Air Force announced.
Lt. Col. David Lujan, deputy commander of the 332nd expeditionary operations group out of Joint Base Balad, told Defense Daily that the 500-pound bomb, also known as the GBU-54, is a “revolutionary weapon.”
A standard JDAM, guided by a Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite, can hit fixed targets but not moving targets. When a laser seeker was added, moving targets became part of the repertoire.
“When we gave this GPS weapon the capability to hit a mover by using a laser receiver on it, we essentially transformed what was already a very flexible weapon into the ultimate multi-role weapon,” Lujan explained during an Aug. 30 telephone interview.
A munition with a wide range of capabilities can replace several different munitions that a fighter pilot might otherwise have aboard his aircraft.
“Now we don’t have to carry five different kinds of weapons,” Lujan said. “We can just carry one.”
Lujan was commander of the Air Force’s 86th fighter weapons squadron–the group in charge of testing precision-guided weapons for the service–during LJDAM development. As part of the development team, he saw the munition “grow up from acquisition to fielding.”
“The Air Force identified the need for a weapon that would engage movers,” he explained. “We leveraged that urgent operational need to make that happen, and I just happened to be lucky enough to be here to watch it be fielded.”
On Aug. 12, an F-16 from the 77th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron, Joint Base Balad, engaged an enemy vehicle in the Diyala Valley.
“We engaged a team of [improvised explosive device] emplacers that were fleeing in a truck,” Lujan said.
He added that, in addition to counterinsurgency efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan, the LJDAM would also be a “very useful weapon in a conventional conflict.”
Lujan said moving armored targets could easily be destroyed by the 500-lb. bomb.
“It can certainly take out a tank moving at up to 70 miles per hour,” he said.
Boeing [BA] won the $28.8 million LJDAM contract in May 2007 to produce 400 kits for the Air Force and 200 kits for the Navy. Delivery is expected to be completed by June 2009.
Earlier this summer, the company announced its first foreign sale of LJDAMs. Germany has purchased the weapon for its fleet of Tornado fighter aircraft. Delivery is expected to begin next summer (Defense Daily, July 25).
LJDAM consists of the standard JDAM guidance tailkit and a Precision Laser Guidance Set (PLGS) kit that acquires and tracks laser target signals.
The Air Force tested production units in March at the China Lake, Calif., test range, according to Boeing. They were launched from F-15E and F-16 aircraft. The Navy also tested in March, carrying out multiple drops from an AV-8B and an F/A-18.