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An RAAF Mirage 1110 fitted with three Texas Instruments GBU-12B/Mk82 laser-guided bombs. The RAAF is upgrading its tactical strike capabilities with the Mirage carrying LGBs and the F-111C force acquiring the Pave Tack FUR designator due to become operational in 1984. LGBs are a must for smaller air forces, which would find it simply impossible to reattack targets several times, considering the density of air defences that would be encountered. The Defence Science & Technology Organisation (DSTO) is currently perfecting the design of an airborne laser designator system for the RAAF. Fitted on the centreline station beneath a dual-seat Mirage I/ID, the pod utilises a video display unit that acquires the target manually and vectors the LGB onto target via a steering cue operated by a controller in the second cockpit of the Mirage. With a maximum slant range of five kilometres, the pod would be particularly useful when attacking large high-value targets such as fortifications, bridges and surface vessels.
Technology Explained
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Since the earliest days of military aviation Its prime objective has been the destruction of targets. Whether we look at the hand grenades of 1914 or 1945’s Fat Man and Little Boy, we’ll find one Important factor they have in common. They were unguided, free-fall weapons, effective primarily due to the nature of their targets. However, modern warfare has brought significant changes to this world. Saturation bombing has lost a lot of Its popularity, as It seems nobody feels like maintaining enormous fleets of fuel-guzzling, vulnerable bombers, just as nobody likes the public opinion backlash resulting from dropping a few tonnes of TNT in someone’s backyard. As nuking people Isn’t really the “in” thing in this day and age, it would seem that the only course left to the modern military is to fly their aircraft through swarms of look-down, shoot-down fighters, dodge a great number of SAMs, keep out of the range of radar-guided AAA (flak for the traditional) and drop their bombs on the target.
However, here is where the real problem becomes apparent – hitting the actual target. Consider dropping a free-fall bomb on a small building from an aircraft travelling at 350 knots in level flight. An error in release time of 0. 3 seconds will result in your bomb falling something like 60 metres from your target if we neglect aerodynamic drag, wind velocity and other factors. In reality, you would be hedgehopping in at 500 kts, trying to conceal yourself to the last moment and trying to find a small, camouflaged target, possibly also mobile and hard-skinned. An improvement in bombing accuracy occurred with the appearance of computer-controlled bomb-release systems. The computer, knowing the altitude and velocity of the aircraft, weapon parameters and the position of the target, calculates the release time. The accuracy will depend, though, on a number of factors such as the errors generated by the radio/radar altimeter, airspeed sensors and inertial navigation system or radar, depending on which is used. If the target is stationary and the attacking aircraft doesn’t have to zig-zag its way in, this is fine. But given a very hostile battlefield environment, this would hardly be the case. Manual bomb-aiming cannot live up to the challenge posed by modern aerial warfare, computer-controlled bombing has limited accuracy and applicability.
For a weapon-aiming system to perform effectively in a modern environment, it must satisfy these requirements:
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