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PARIS (BNS): French Defence Procurement Agency (DGA) has successfully carried out the first qualification firing test of the laser terminal guidance version of the AASM Hammer modular air-to-ground weapon.

The test was carried out by the DGA's missile test department at the Cazaux air base on May 31, with the Hammer weapon being fired from a production Rafale fighter.

Developed and produced by Sagem (Safran group), with the DGA as contracting authority, the AASM Hammer is a family of air-to-ground weapons comprising guidance and range augmentation kits attached to standard bombs.

The GPS/inertial?laser guidance version designated SBU-64 Hammer, joins the AASM range which already includes two other versions qualified for deployment by Rafale: GPS/inertial and GPS/inertial/infrared versions.

The SBU-64 features a semi-active laser seeker in place of the infrared imager, plus dedicated algorithms that are activated during the terminal phase. This version of the AASM can be used to attack moving targets.

The French armed forces will start taking delivery of the AASM SBU-64 at the end of 2012, as part of a contract that provides for the production of several hundred units.