Raytheon to Develop GPS-degraded Munitions Guidance
January 9, 2012Munitions guidance experts at the Raytheon Co. Space and Airborne Systems segment in El Segundo, Calif., will design and demonstrate navigation and guidance technologies that can keep new generations of deep-penetrating bombs and missiles on target in conditions where signals from GPS satellite satellites are degraded or unavailable, reports the Military & Aerospace Electronics website.
According to the report, Raytheon is designing the technology under an $11 million contract awarded Friday by the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory's Munitions Directorate at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida. Raytheon will develop GPS-degraded munitions guidance technology as part of the Air Force High Velocity Penetrating Weapon program, which seeks to develop technologies for a future rocket-boosted 2000-pound weapon with the penetration capability of a 5000-pound gravity-dropped bomb that could be carried in the weapons bay of the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lighting II joint strike fighter and other fighter-bombers.
U.S. military officials are interested in developing deep-penetrating weapons such as the High Velocity Penetrating Weapon and the Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) to attack and destroy deeply buried research facilities and weapons laboratories in areas such as Iran, which intelligence experts suspect is developing nuclear weapons from the supposed safety of underground bunkers, the Military & Aerospace Electronics website reported.
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