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Last summer, the Bazalt federal unitary company, which turns 70 this year and is Russia’s major diversified company specialising in developing and manufacturing close-in battle weapons for the Army and aerial weapons for the Air Force, held a presentation, during which the company’s leaders shed some light on weapons systems under development. Bazalt Director General Vladimir Korenkov said that the company was completing the development of several cutting-edge air-launched precision-guided weapons systems expected soon to start fielding with the Russian Air Force and being sold abroad in addition to rocket launchers, mortar bombs, hand grenades and self-propelled gun rounds well known abroad, as well as unguided aerial weapons of all types long and widely employed by RusAF. The novelties in question include, in the first place, the advanced PBK-500U commonised gliding cluster-bomb unit (CBU) with homing submunitions and a special set of glide-and-guide modules to fit production gravity bombs. The development of the two systems is a kind of response of Russian designers to the US development of the JSOW gliding CBU and a series of JDAM smart bombs already in the inventory of the US Air Force, US Navy’s air arm and a number of other militaries. Take-off’s correspondent attended Bazalt’s presentation.

PBK-500U: Russian response to JSOW

Bazalt launched development of the advanced gliding cluster-bomb dispenser as far back as the mid-1990s to enhance RusAF’s effectiveness and combat capabilities. However, the programme was affected by the economic turmoil in the country and has been re-energised and completed only recently. As was said at the presentation, flight tests of the advanced weapon are to begin this year. The official trials are supposed to take place in 2009. If they prove to be a success, the fielding of the PBK-500U with the Air Force may launch already in 2010. Bazalt’s advanced gliding cluster bomb is, essentially, a Russian analogue of the American JSOW weapons system. Bazalt’s earlier RBK-500 disposal CBU as well as fragmentation, concrete-busting, shaped-charge, incendiary, cluster, homing and mine submunition modules for the KMGU airborne container are an effective means to destroy hostile aircraft, missile systems and armoured vehicles. The lethality of such weapons is several times as that of monoblock bombs. With the same calibre, RBK and PBK need 10 times less munitions to destroy similar targets, with their yield being adaptable to a specific target. The advanced PBK-500U gliding cluster bomb packing SPBE-K homing submunitions is derivative of the RBK-500 series of disposable cluster bomb units, ensuring more effective application by tactical aircraft, such as the Su-34, etc. It is designed for all-weather round-the-clock standoff employment with precise delivery of submunitions to the target. The gliding CBU has a calibre of 500 mm and kills armour, SAM systems, command posts and other military installations with the radar or infrared signature giving them away against the underlying terrain in the face of clutter and countermeasures from an altitude ranging from 100 m to 14,000 m at the carrier aircraft’s speed varying from 700 km/h to 1,100 km/h. The weapon’s range is about 50 km if released from an altitude of 10 km. The CBU is 3,100 mm long and 450 mm in diameter. The baseline model now undergoing tests has its submunitions dispenser fitted with the inertial navigation system (INS) and a GPS/GLONASS satnav receiver to ensure accurate delivery of submunitions to the target area. This is an all-passive guidance package requiring no information contact with the target neither before, nor after the release, which is important for the survival of the launch platform and for mission accomplishment. The PBK-500U is a launch-and-leave weapon.

The PBK-500U can be fitted with various cluster submunitions or monoblock warheads. The baseline model is fitted with SPBE-K combined heat-seeking/radar-homing submunitions wiping out a wide range of military weapons systems and vehicles in various types of terrain. According to Bazalt representatives, even rather old homing submunitions, such as SPBE-D, remain superior to many western analogues, while the new-generation SPBE-K does not even have rivals abroad. A single CBU packing such submunitions can knock off up to six armoured vehicles – both those emitting in the infrared part of the spectrum and those emitting nothing. The SPBE-Ks can be applied against enemy tanks in a close-range armoured free-for-all, since it has the identification friend-or-foe (IFF) capability. The submunitions are expected to be extremely effective even against future armoured threats. The CBU’s version filled with BETAB-M concrete-piercing submunitions is superior to all known analogues too. The advantages offered by the commonised gliding CBU over an air-to-surface missile handling similar tasks are its lower cost, much heavier warhead totalling more than 70 per cent of the PBK-500U’s weight and multiple-kill-per-pass capability. According to Bazalt’s leaders speaking at the presentation, in future the PBK-500U is to be fitted with an efficient motor, which will considerably extend the weapon’s controlled flight distance while retaining its precision. This PBK-500U variant will be comparable to the US-made JSOW-ER.

Old bombs gaining new wings

Bazalt Director General Vladimir Korenkov said during the presentation that his company’s development of special commonised glide and guidance kits has been in full swing to fit them to gravity bombs and disposable cluster-bomb dispensers. One or more kit comprising folding wings and guidance, navigation and satellite update packages will be attached to a bomb depending on the mission. Such kits may be fitted to the existing dumb bombs in RusAF’s inventory and all of the future ones. The programme will enhance the precision and functionality of gravity bombs and, depending on the type of kits, create, essentially, precision-guided weapons released from low altitude at a standoff range. Such an approach to aerial bombs upgrade have been used by the United States deriving the GBU-31, GBU-32, GBU-38 and other smart bombs from the production Mk-82, Mk-83, Mk-84 and a number of other 500, 1,000 and 2,000lb gravity bombs under the JDAM programme. However, Bazalt’s upgrade costs far less. Mounting the new tailkit, guidance package and empennage under the JDAM programme involves factory assembly, and any factory assembly jacks up the costs. Bazalt offers a cheaper and more flexible variant: the modular design allows assembly of smart bombs in the required configuration at the airfield, rather than at the factory. In addition, the urgency of retrofitting Russian bombs with control and guidance kits is highlighted by the fact that development of similar-performance missiles or smart bombs to handle the same tasks would have cost 50 times more, according to Bazalt. At present, the design that has advanced farthest is the one providing the upgrading of a most mass-produced Russian bomb, the FAB-500M-62, remaining in the inventory of many air forces throughout the world. According to Bazalt’s managers, there are four different baseline upgrade variants. The first one provides for equipping a bomb with the so-called ‘simple’ kit. This is a purely aerodynamic solution allowing the bomb to self-stabilise and offset the wind drift and providing for attaching only a simple glide-and-guide module to the bomb’s body without any electronic modules. The kit’s cost will be within the cost of the weapon itself. Aerial bombs in such a configuration can be used at a range of 6–8 km but from a minimum altitude of 50–100 m, rather than 3,000-4,000 m usual for ‘dumb’ HE bombs and making the aircraft vulnerable to hostile air defences. The second option goes for using the standard-issue glide-and-guide module and the small-size INS unit, the latter allowing the bomb’s in-flight stabilisation and arrival to the target area. This variant will ensure a release range of 12–15 km while retaining the required accuracy. The third version provides for beefing up the INS-based kit, whose accuracy is not too high, with extra drives and a GPS/GLONASS satnav receiver. The solution will allow release at a range of 40–60 km depending on the carrier aircraft’s flight mode and speed and will ensure a circular error probable (CEP) of at least 10 m. The fourth variant’s kit comprises a pulsed ramjet engine in addition to the glide-and-guide module and guidance package and will have a range of 80–100 km. Upgraded bombs in the ‘glide-and-guide module + INS/GPS’ and ‘glide-and-guide module + INS/GPS + engine’ configurations gain new characteristics turning them into full-fledged standoff PGMs producing a greater bang for a far smaller buck. An advantage of upgraded bombs is the payload weight totalling in the neighbourhood of 70 per cent of the launch weight as opposed to 15–20 per cent of a similar-purpose missile. As far as the new kit cost is concerned, Vladimir Korenkov said it would cost only 5 to 10 times more than the bomb, which is much cheaper than the cost of advanced smart bombs and guided missiles. The bombs upgraded by Bazalt will feature the following characteristics: 400 mm in diameter, 645–2,000 mm in wingspan and 3,000 mm in length. The ‘winged’ bomb will weigh up to 540 kg, with its warhead weighing 300 kg. On the eve of Bazalt’s anniversary, the Russian government issued a resolution on setting up an integrated entity based on Bazalt to make aerial bombs and close-in battle weapons. Under the presidential decree dated 10 July 2008, Bazalt and members of the future integrated entity joined the Russian Technologies state corporation. The emergence of the integrated entity will speed up the development of cutting-edge munitions, so, hopefully, advanced Bazalt-built glide CBUs and ‘winged’ bombs will enter service with the Russian Air Force and foreign air forces real soon.

What’s up abroad?

JSOW

JSOW (Joint Standoff Weapon, US DoD designation – AGM-154) is a joint USAF and US Navy programme of developing a common guided gliding CBU to kill protected targets from a standoff range so as to enhance the survivability of carrier aircraft and slash their losses. The United States kicked off the development in the mid-1990s. Raytheon is the developer and supplier. JSOW has been in service with the USAF and US naval aviation, with contracts signed for JSOW deliveries to Poland, Turkey and other nations. The JSOW family of cluster bombs has the 1,000lb (450kg) calibre. JSOW eliminates ground targets at a range of 22–28 km when released from low altitude to 110–130 km when dropped from high altitude. Owing to its combined INS/GPS guidance system, JSOW is a launch-and-leave weapon featuring high precision and round-the-clock and all-weather capability. The CBU is 4.06 m long with the 0.34x0.44 m cross-section and 2.69 m wingspan. Its launch weight ranges from 473 kg to 497 kg depending on a version. JSOW is adapted for carriage by US Navy the F/A-18C/D/E/F/G fighters and future F-35C fighters as well as by the USAF’s F-15E and F-16C/D Block 40 and 50 fighters, B-1B, B-2A and B-52H bombers and future F-35A fighter. At first, it was supposed that three basic JSOW variants with different payload would be fielded. The first of them, JSOW-A (AGM-154A) with a payload of 145 BLU-108/B armour-piercing/fragmentation submunitions, entered service in 1999. The second one, JSOW-B (AGM-154B) with six BLU-108/B armour-piercing submunitions, each of which comprises four separating sub-submunitions with IR seekers, reached the operational evaluation (opeval) stage, but the US Navy revoked its order after the US Air Force pulled out of the programme. The third version, JSOW-C (AGM-154C) with the so-called tandem warhead designated as BROACH, designed to kill heavily protected targets and made up of the WDU-44 shaped charge and WDU-45 penetrator, entered the inventory in February 2005. JSOW entered full-rate production in 1999. Raytheon in 2000 landed a contract for developing an upgraded guidance system electronic unit giving the satnav channel immunity from electronic countermeasures (ECM). Upgraded like this, the cluster-bomb dispenser was dubbed JSOW Block II, and its production was to begin in 2007. The next stage of modernisation is going to be the JSOW-C1 (JSOW Block III), an upgrade of the AGM-154C, fitted the Link 16 datalink and intended to eliminate moving naval targets. It is to enter the production and delivery stage in 2009. The JSOW-A1 (AGM-154A-1) with the advanced BLU-111 enhanced-effect HE warhead is under development for export. At the testing stage, there is also the rocket motor-fitted version of the JSOW-ER glide bomb, with the motor extending its range from 110–120 km to 500–550 km. JSOW-ER deliveries are slated to start in 2011. JSOW glide bombs in the AGM-154A variant made their operation debut with the US Navy in Iraq in January 1999. At least 400 such weapons have been used by the US military in Iraq, Yugoslavia and Afghanistan since then. In addition to the US Armed Services, the Greek, Canadian, Polish, Singaporean and Turkish militaries have ordered JSOW. The deliveries to the USAF were completed in 2005 and to the Marine Corps and naval aviation have been under way. The AGM-154A goes at $282,000 per unit and the AGM-154C at almost $720,000.

JDAM

JDAM (Joint Direct Attack Munition) is a joint USAF/USN programme on converting ordinary free-fall bombs into all-weather precision-guided weapons through fitting them with a tailkit comprising the combined INS/GPS guidance system and control surfaces. Such improvements furnishes a considerable precision enhancement, with the range extending to about 28 km. US standard 500, 1,000 and 2,000lb (225, 450 and 900kg) gravity bombs are being modernised under the JDAM programme through retrofitting the so-called JDAM kit comprising a new tail-mounted control-surface module and the INS/GPS guidance package. With such improvements, ordinary Mark 80 series (Mk-82, Mk-83, Mk-84) and BLU (Bomb Live Unit) bombs turn into guided bombs (GBU) and are given new designations. The JDAM programme dates back to 1992 after the first Iraqi War that revealed the urgent need for all-weather ground-attack precision-guided munitions. Boeing snagged the contract for JDAM kits. The first kits were made in 1997. During the opeval in 1998–99, over 450 JDAM-modified 2,000lb Mk-84 (GBU-31) bombs were dropped, producing an average CEP of within 10 m. JDAM was first tactically employed by B-2 bombers during the war in Yugoslavia in 1999. In all, more than 650 JDAMs were dropped on Yugoslavia, of which 87 per cent hit their targets. Riding on the crest of this success, Boeing launched development of JDAM kits for 1,000 and 500lb bombs in 1999. Later on, JDAM was used on a large scale in Iraq and Afghanistan. JDAMs have been adapted for use on the F-15E, F-16C/D, F-18C/D/E/F, F-22A and F-35 fighters, A-10C and AV-8B attack aircraft, B-1B, B-2A and B-52H bombers, West European Tornado strike aircraft and now discarded F-117A and F-14A/B/D fighters. Work is under way on adapting them to the Eurofighter Typhoon, US-made MQ-9 Reaper UAV and S-3 Viking antisubmarine warfare aircraft. In addition to the US Air Force and Navy, JDAM has been ordered by the militaries of Australia, Germany, Denmark, Israel, Italy, South Korea, the Netherlands, Norway, Pakistan, Poland, Saudi Arabia, Singapore and Chile, with Greece, Egypt and Finland likely to join them soon. The 2,000lb (900kg) Mk-84 and BLU-109 modified to JDAM standard are designated as GBU-31 (Mk-84s ordered by the USAF and US Navy are re-designated as GBU-31(V)1/B and GBU-31(V)2/B respectively, while the BLU-109 is re-designated as the GBU-31(V)3/B and GBU-31(V)4/B respectively). The upgraded 1,000lb Mk-83 is re-designated by the USAF as GBU-32(V)1/B and by the US Navy as GBU-32(V)2/B, while the BLU-110 as GBU-35(V)1/B. The 500lb Mk-82 and BLU-111 are re-designated as GBU-38/B. To enable JDAM-upgraded aerial bombs to kill moving ground targets, Boeing is developing the so-called laser-guided JDAM (LJDAM), a munition fitted, among other things, with the DSU-38/B semi-active laser homing head. Trials of this bomb derived from the 500lb (225kg) Mk-82 and dubbed GBU-54/B commenced 2004. In June last year, Boeing announced it had snagged a $28 million contract for 600 PLGS (Precision Laser Guidance Set) laser guidance kits for the USAF and US Navy by June 2009 to fit bombs upgraded to LJDAM standard. In addition, 24 July 2008 saw the arrival of the first foreign customer for LJDAM munitions, Germany, which had awarded a contract to Boeing. LJDAM deliveries to Luftwaffe are slated for mid-2009. On order from the US Navy, Boeing is working on enhancing the ECM immunity of JDAM’s satellite guidance system and on developing the JDAM-ER extended-range version featuring an enlarged empennage and a small wing. JDAM-ER’s range may be as long as 90 km. The basic specification of aerial bombs upgraded under the JDAM programme are as follows: length depending on a version – 3.77–3.88 m (GBU-31) and 3.04 m (GBU-32), wingspan – 640 mm (GBU-31) and 500 mm (GBU-32), launch weight – 924–959 kg (GBU-31) and 459 kg (GBU-32), range – up to 28 km and release altitude – up to 14 km. The JDAM kit costs $21,000 in 2004 dollars and may increase to $31,000 by 2011. As of October 2005, the US military ordered about $240,000 JDAM kits – 158,000 for the USAF and 82,000 for the US Navy.