Naval Air Systems Command delivered a smarter bomb - the Laser Joint Direct Attack Munition (LJDAM) - to the Fleet Nov. 7.

LJDAM provides the Navy F/A-18 variants A+ and C/D Hornets, F/A-18E/F Super Hornets, and AV-8B Harriers a laser guidance mode for fixed and fast-moving land targets. This laser-guidance enhances the weapon’s existing smart-bomb targeting capabilities in Global Positioning System and Inertial Navigation System (GPS/INS).

The Air Force and Navy produced the LJDAM to satisfy an urgent operational requirement for engagement of fast-moving land targets. This capability allows the warfighter to engage in critical situations where the addition of the laser-seeker combined with the GPS/INS capability of a JDAM will give the warfighter the ability to engage both fixed and fast-moving land targets with one weapon. The laser guidance kit also provides an additional mode of targeting in a situation where GPS/INS capability may be denied.

The joint project, led by the Air Force. is coordinated with the NAVAIR’s Precision Strike Weapons program office (PMA201), Patuxent River Md.

“It’s about making smart weapons smarter” said Maj. Sean B. Garick, NAVAIR’s Deputy Program Manager for JDAM and Small Diameter Bomb II. “We took an existing, extremely capable weapon, the JDAM, and added laser-seeker capability. JDAM and LJDAM represent smart acquisition. The government, as good stewards of taxpayers’ money, has done an outstanding job taking a current capability and asking how we can modify it to fill a capability gap. While simple and relatively inexpensive, it brings the warfighter ahead in this advanced capability.”

LJDAM is comprised of a laser sensor kit installed on the nose of a standard JDAM, which in turn is made up of a standard 500 lb general-purpose bomb body with a guidance tail-kit, making it a smart weapon by enabling it to find its target with GPS, inertial navigation system and controllable fins. The JDAM can engage pre-designated precise coordinates in all-weather conditions. With the laser sensor addition, the LJDAM can acquire and track target-reflected laser signals sent to the JDAM processor by ground forces, or special pods on an overhead aircraft, that talk to the tail-kit to adjust its tail fins to follow the target until impact.

“In mid-August, a good friend and great Marine was killed by an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) in Iraq. Less than a week later, the first Air Force LJDAM was dropped in combat, engaging and destroying its target,” said Garick. “That target was a vehicle that may have been planting IEDs along the side of a road. How many lives will be saved by having this capability? It’s very exciting to see that this capability will make a difference.”

From general-purpose bombs to precision-guided weapons and aircraft armament-related support equipment components, the PMA 201 Precision Strike Weapons program office is responsible for the testing and acquisition of air-to-ground precision strike weapons.

[Article submitted by public affairs for PEO(Unmanned Aviation and Strike Weapons)]

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Photo caption:
A Laser JDAM destroys a target during testing at the China Lake Naval Weapons Station, Calif. in August.