Article Posted on : - Nov 17, 2011

Small Diameter Bomb II. Photo: Raytheon

TUCSON, ARIZONA (BNS): The warhead for Raytheon's Small Diameter Bomb II performed at twice what was required during a series of recent tests, the company said.

The test marked the first demonstration of an SDB II warhead built on a fully-automated production line.

SDB II is the world's first weapon capable of engaging fixed or moving targets around-the-clock in adverse weather conditions from a range of greater than 40 nautical miles (approximately 46 statute miles), according to Raytheon.

"SDB II is affordable because we designed it to be low cost, producible, and meet government specifications. Exceeding those requirements at no extra cost is good for the taxpayer and warfighter," said Harry Schulte, vice president of Raytheon Missile Systems' Air Warfare Systems.

"We are determined to keep SDB II on cost and ahead of schedule because the warfighter needs, but doesn't have, an air-launched weapon that can engage moving targets in adverse weather."

After building the test warheads on the production line, engineers put the warheads through an accelerated conditioning regime equivalent to 500 flight hours and 20 years of aging in a bunker, followed by live detonation testing.

SDB II's integrated tri-mode seeker fuses millimeter-wave (MMW) radar, uncooled imaging infrared (IIR) and semiactive laser sensors on a single gimbal, which enables the weapon to seek and destroy targets, despite weather conditions.