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The U.S. Air Force has ordered 160 AGM-158 JASSM air-to-ground missiles. These will cost about $1.5 million each, and several dozen of them will be shipped off to South Korea, which expected to get them last year. JASSM has been delayed due to test failures. However, tests late last year were over 90 percent successful. That kind of good news has arrived just in time. For the last three years, the U.S. Department of Defense has been on the verge of cancelling the $6 billion JASSM cruise missile program. Lobbying, pleading, a large order from South Korea, and the growing...

India has successfully tested locally developed laser guided bombs. While India can buy laser guided bombs from Russia, it is seen as better to design and build these weapons locally. Then there's always the desire to keep up with China, which recently introduced a new laser guided bomb; the LT-2. This weapon looks very similar to the Russian KAB-500L 1100 pound laser guided bomb. So the LT-2 may be using licensed or stolen Russian technology. The KAB-500L is very similar to the American Paveway series of laser guided bombs. That is, a dumb bomb has a guidance kit attached. Sixteen...

Italy has bought a manufacturing license, for $34 million, to produce 500 SDB smart bombs, and fifty launchers for their aircraft. The American manufacturer (Boeing) will supply key mechanical and electrical components, and the Italian builder will supply the rest and assemble and test the bombs. Boeing previously did a similar deal with the Italian firm (Oto Melara) to produce JDAM GPS guided bombs. Oto Melara is a division of Finmeccanica, the largest defense firm (nearly $20 billion a year in sales) in Italy. It was four years ago that the air force finally got the SDB into service, in...

The U.S. Air Force is modifying the fire control software on its AC-130H gunships so the 105mm howitzer and 40mm autocannon can track and shoot at different targets at the same time. Currently, the two weapons can both be aimed at only one target at a time. The AC-130s are also being tested using missiles, like Hellfire. U.S. Air Force operates 25 of these gunships (eight AC-130H "Spectre", and 17 AC-130U "Spooky"). The AC-130U has an additional 25mm autocannon, and always had the capability to track more than one target at a time. Because of their vulnerability to ground fire,...

The U.S. Air Force has successfully tested its new Paveway II Plus laser guided bomb. The existing Paveway II bomb has a range of 14 kilometers and will hit within less than half a meter of where the laser designator is reflecting off the target. Paveway is actually a guidance kit (costing about $20,000) that is fitted to a dumb bomb, turning it into a glide bomb that homes in on the reflected laser light. The Paveway II Plus is more accurate and reliable, but the exact figures are classified. Laser guided bombs have been in use since the 1960s....