Planned JDAM upgrade boosts accuracy to 10 Feet: Navy completes development of new seeker that guides bombs with images.

• Author: Erwin, Sandra I.
• Position: Analysis

An imaging infrared seeker that can improve the accuracy of the JDAM satellite-guided munitions by more than 200 percent has been tested successfully and is ready for production, said program officials. The same technology also could be used in other types of bombs and missiles.

The Joint Direct Attack Munition is a 1,000-pound or 2,000-pound free-falling bomb with a strap-on Global Positioning System/Inertial Navigation System (GPS/INS) guidance kit.

JDAM's accuracy is nearly 43 feet in the GPS/INS mode and 100 feet with INS alone. The new seeker, using uncooled imaging infrared focal plane array technology, would increase the accuracy to about 10 feet. The system is called Damask, an acronym for direct attack munition affordable seeker. Each system is expected to cost $12,700, said Michael Dietchman, director of strike technology at the Office of Naval Research. Each JDAM guided bomb costs about $20,000.

Air - to - surface weapon accuracy is defined by circular error probable, or CEP. That is the radius of a circle within which 50 percent of the weapons will strike. The smaller the CEP, the greater the weapon's accuracy. The JDAM CEP is 13 meters. Dietchman said that the addition of Damask to JDAM lowers the CEP to three meters (about 10 feet).

Three-meter accuracy is achievable with laser-guided bombs, which can only be used in clear weather with direct line-of-sight to the target, and require a dedicated designator. JDAM is less accurate but often a preferred choice, because it's satellite-guided, so it works in bad weather.

The Office of Naval Research (ONR) developed and tested the Damask seeker and has turned over the system to Navy weapon acquisition officials. Damask could soon be used to upgrade JDAMs currently in production at the Boeing Co.

"The acquisition part of the Navy is working with Boeing to look at the design and where to go from here," said Dietchman in a briefing to the Precision Strike Association. "The science and technology proved that it can work. Now it's in the hands of the acquisition community."

The Navy and the Air Force collectively could buy anywhere between 20,000 and 100,000 JDAMs during the next several years. These weapons were widely used in the 1999 air war over Kosovo and the campaign over Afghanistan this fall. JDAMs are compatible with Air Force B-2, B-52 and B-1 bombers, F-16C/D fighter aircraft, and with Navy F/A-18C/D fighter aircraft.

On the question on whether Damask could be viewed as an...