Arizona Daily Star April 19, 2006
Raytheon gets $144M AF contract for bomb
By David Wichner
Tucson-based Raytheon Missile Systems has been awarded a $144 million contract by the U.S. Air Force to develop a new, small-diameter guided bomb capable of destroying moving targets in any weather.
Raytheon will compete for the second phase of development of the Small Diameter Bomb, or SDB, against a team composed of Boeing Co. and Lockheed Martin, which was awarded $146 million as part of the same contract announced late Monday.
The two teams are expected to complete their development work by October 2009. The Air Force is expected to pick a design and a contractor for the production weapon later that year.
The winner will have the inside track on contracts potentially worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
Boeing and Lockheed Martin developed the first version of the SDB under a program launched in 2001.
Designated the GBU-39, the 6-foot long, 6-inch diameter projectile weighs about 250 pounds and uses pop-out wings to glide to its target. The GBU-39, which has a range of about 70 miles, is designed to attack fixed targets and is in limited production.
The aim of the three-year, second-phase program is to develop a "miniature munition" that uses advanced target-seeking technology to hit targets on the move.
"It brings a whole new set of requirements — it's like a whole new weapon system," said Rich Roellig, director of Raytheon's SDB program. "We see this as the forefront for a whole new portfolio of weapons."
Raytheon, the world's biggest missile maker, is the Tucson area's biggest private employer with more than 10,700 workers at the end of last year.
A military analyst said the SDB program represents a fundamental shift away from large bombs to smaller, precision-guided weapons.
The SDB carries only 50 pounds of explosives, compared with 945 pounds of explosives contained in a 1-ton bomb.
"It would be difficult to overstate the importance of this program," said John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org.
"We always have a problem with collateral damage, and the reason is we're dropping 1-ton bombs. Fifty pounds of explosives is enough to put a world of hurt on a building, but the neighborhood will be OK."
The small size of the SDBs also multiplies the number of weapons a plane can carry, in turn increasing the number of targets that can be attacked in each sortie, he noted.
For example, a B-2 Spirit stealth bomber that can carry 16 one-ton bombs could instead carry 216 SDBs, Pike said.
Though the Air Force plans to equip a variety of aircraft with the SDB, its small size enables it to be carried inside the new F-22 Raptor stealth fighter, Pike said.
Raytheon is designing its SDB entry with a target seeker that initially uses laser guidance to glide toward its target, said Bill Chapman, chief engineer on the Raytheon SDB program.
Advanced radar can see through rain, fog and darkness to track the target.
Closer in, a short-range infrared seeker provides enough image clarity to "classify" the target — for example, distinguishing a tracked vehicle like a tank from a wheeled truck, Chapman said.
The weapon can share images with commanders and be retargeted via a two-way data link, he added.
The Air Force bid out the second phase of the program partly because of a procurement scandal that initially focused on a Boeing contract to supply air tankers to the Air Force.
Lockheed Martin in 2004 filed a protest over the award of the SDB contract to Boeing, citing revelations that a senior Air Force buyer who later went to work as an executive for Boeing improperly influenced the SDB contract requirements in favor of Boeing.
The Government Accountability Office in 2005 sustained Lockheed's protest and spurred the Air Force to bid out the second phase of the SDB program.
Raytheon doesn't intend to waste the opportunity, Roellig said.
"With the funding and the timetable, Raytheon has the chance to turn this into a real horse race," he said.
© Copyright 2006, Arizona Daily Star
