Raytheon [RTN] recently said that it has built the fifth Small Diameter Bomb II (SBD II) seeker in its new factory expressly designed to assemble integrated tri-mode seekers.
The SDB II also recently successfully completed a critical design review for the Air Force, a significant milestone for Raytheon and teammate Boeing [BA], which are competing for the Joint Air-To-Ground (JAGM) program against a Lockheed Martin [LMT] team. SBD II and JAGM share essentially the same tri-mode seeker.
“Raytheon is the only company building integrated tri-mode seekers on a ‘hot’ production line and we’re doing it less than a year after contract award,” said Harry Schulte, vice president of Air Warfare Systems for Raytheon Missile Systems. “Producing seekers in an active factory is one of the reasons Raytheon can keep its commitment to deliver SDB II to the warfighter on cost and on schedule.”
SDB II’s seeker fuses millimeter-wave radar, uncooled imaging infrared and semiactive laser sensors on a single gimbal. The result is a powerful integrated seeker that seamlessly shares targeting information between modes, enabling the weapon to engage fixed or moving targets around the clock in adverse weather conditions.