India set to acquire American precision bomb technology

India's state-run Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) is negotiating the acquisition of precision bomb technology from US arms major Raytheon.

Ben Ford, senior manager of Raytheon Missile Systems, told IANS at the ongoing Paris Air Show that the company was in discussions to transfer the technology for the Enhanced Paveway-II Dual Mode GPS/Laser Guided Bombs to the OFB for their indigenous manufacture in India for use by the Indian Air Force (IAF).

The Paveway, initially developed in 1964, is a standard US Air Force weapon with varying loads for attacking fixed or moving targets. Thanks to its new Global Positioning System (GPS) and laser guidance capability, it can now be dropped exactly as required on a target with an error margin of less than four feet.

During the 1999 Kargil War, the IAF had to make last minute imports of laser guidance kits to bomb Pakistani positions inside Indian territory and two aircraft had to be used to designate and hit any target.

With both the GPS and laser technologies now available on the same bomb, a strike mission could be mounted with less deployment and without any collateral damage.

Itâ€™s not like laser guided bombs are new technology. I used to work with the guy that was at the lab that let the contract to Texas Instruments for their development, led the squadron that delivered the first of them in combat in the later phases of the Vietnam war. Earlier he had been in the SAC fighter force and also flew the U-2, where he wouldn't say. :). He later went back to head that lab. After he retired he went to work for TI, where I met him and where he was later my boss for a few months. Retired as Colonel (O-6). I donâ€™t know if he still works for RatCo (Raytheon) or if he retired again, which is likely for a couple of reasons. One he joined the Air Force during the Korean War, and so is old enough to retire again. Second he doesnâ€™t suffer fools gladly, and there are lots of those in Raytheon â€œlegacyâ€ management (RatCo bought TIâ€™s defense business around â€˜97 or â€˜98) Just so happens we are from the same home time. He lived a few blocks from my high school, and attended it about 15-18 years earlier than I did.

I also knew some of the engineers who worked on those Laser Guided Bombs back in the '60s.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.