JDAM: A GPS-INS Add-on Adds Accuracy to Airstrikes
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DID’s FOCUS articles offer in-depth, updated looks at significant military programs of record. This DID FOCUS Article looks at the transformational history of the JDAM GPS-guided bomb program, the ongoing efforts to bring its capabilities up to and beyond the level of weapons like Israel’s Spice and Raytheon’s Enhanced Paveway, and the contracts issued under the JDAM program and its derivatives.
Precision bombing has been a significant military goal since the invention of the Norden bomb sight in the 1920s, but its application remained elusive. Over 30 years later, in Vietnam, the destruction of a single target could require 300 bombs, which meant sending an appropriate number of fighters or bombers into harm’s way to deliver them. Even the 1991 Desert Storm war with Iraq featured unguided munitions for the most part; the US Air Force did use some laser and TV-guided weapons like Paveway bombs and Maverick missiles, but they were very expensive and only effective in good weather. If precision bombing was finally to become a reality throughout the Air Force, a new approach would be needed.
The Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) became that alternative, an engine of military transformation that was also a model of procurement transformation. The latest news involves a request from Singapore…
- JDAM: A History of Transformation
- JDAM: Program & Variants
- JDAM: Contracts and Key Events, 1996 – Present [updated]
- Additional Readings & Sources [updated]
Subscribe now to DII and stay on top of technical developments, and contract news involving the popular and revolutionary JDAM GPS-guided bomb family:
- JDAM's history, and its changes from the conventional weapon procurement approach;
- What made JDAM a revolutionary development?;
- CIA negotiating tactics in Afghanistan;
- Emerging JDAM variants, including extended range, laser-guided, and the Small Diameter Bomb;
- Contracts and key events from 1996 to the present day;
- Numerous photos and illustrations;
- Additional research resources
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