Maritime attack role eyed for B-1B

By idrw team
Published: June 1, 2006
Print Email

By Stephen Trimble JDW Americas Bureau Chief Long Beach, California Bombing a swarm of small attack boats with a fusillade of nearly 100 precision-guided munitions is a new mission being considered for the US Air Force’s B-1B Lancer fleet. The air force has taken on the challenge of striking targets in the maritime domain using air-dropped munitions, but the task is complicated by the effect of ocean waves on the precision targeting systems of most smart weapons. However, an exercise staged off the Hawaiian coast in November 2004 demonstrated that a fighter could strike a large vessel using a modified Boeing Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) receiving target co-ordinate updates from multiple airborne radar systems. With a current load of 24 JDAMs or a future maximum load of 96 Boeing Small Diameter Bombs, the B-1B is considered a potential solution for the swarming boat scenario, in which dozens of small vessels are used to overwhelm a naval target.

link :http://www.idrw.org/index.php?categoryid=10&p2_articleid=22