Guided Bomb Unit-12 (GBU-12) Paveway II

Bomb with guidance support system.

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History

Precision-guided munitions (PGM) can trace their origins back to World War Two. These early weapons, such as the QB-17G "Aphrodite" were essentially airframes packed with explosives and guided via radio direction signals to their target, where they would crash and explode. While guidance was extremely crude by today's standards, these weapons were more accurate than conventional dropped munitions, and did not expose aircrews to deadly enemy anti-aircraft fire. Unfortunately, such weapons were unwieldy, unsuitable for small targets, and were themselves subject to defensive fire. The first truly precision-guided munitions did not appear until the Vietnam War. Serving as a major supply conduit for North Vietnam, the mile long Paul Doumer Bridge over the Red River was the most important ground target of the war. Unfortunately, it was also one of the most heavily defended, its approaches ringed with anti-aircraft guns and surface to air missile emplacements. While American pilots were able to attack the bridge using conventional munitions, such missions were extremely hazardous and casualties were high. In 1967 the Rockwell International Corporation was tasked with producing a precision munition using electro-optical guidance technology. The end result was the GBU (Guided Bomb Unit) 8 or Homing Bomb System (HOBOS), a conventional Mk. 84 2,000 pound bomb with a TV like electro-optical guidance package in the nose to provide direction and a modified tail fin assembly in the rear to provide lift. To launch the GBU-8 the pilot aligned the TV camera sight in the bomb with the target and the weapons officer locked the bomb's seeker onto the target. Once aligned, the bomb could be released well away from the target area and it would guide itself into the target with a high degree of accuracy.

Description

The Guided Bomb Unit-12 (GBU-12) utilizes a 500-pound general purpose warhead. The operator illuminates a target with a laser designator and then the munition guides to a spot of laser energy reflected from the target.

The GBU-12 Paveway II is a smaller version of the GBU-10 Laser Guided Bomb (LGB). Utilizing the same principles as the GBU-10, the GBU-1 uses the Mk. 82 500 pound bomb with the same seeker head technology as the GBU-10. Targets may be designated by either the launching aircraft or another aircraft in the area, by an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), or by personnel on the ground. In addition, since the GBU-12 orients itself on the reflected laser, rather than the target, it can be directed towards a different target after launch simply by pointing the designator at a different target.

The munition was used during Operation Desert Storm, and, according to the Air Force, hit 88 percent of its targets. During Desert Storm the GBU-12 was dropped by F-lllFs, F-15Es, and A-6s, mostly against fixed armor. It was the F-111F tank-busting weapon of choice. Of the 4,493 GBU-12s employed, over half were dropped by the F-lllF.

There are two generations of GBU-12 LGBs: Paveway I with fixed wings and Paveway II with folding wings. Paveway II models have the following improvements: detector optics and housing made of injec- tion-molded plastic to reduce weight and cost; increased detector sensitiv- ity; reduced thermal battery delay after release; increased maximum canard deflection; laser coding; folding wings for carriage, and increased detector field of view. (Paveway II's instantaneous field of view is thirty percent greater than that of the Paveway I's field of view).