Raytheon announced Tuesday that it completed a series of captive flight tests of the Small Diameter Bomb II’s tri-mode seeker, successfully demonstrating that the seeker could acquire and track moving vehicles. These results set the stage for a free-flight test in 2012, according to the company. “These tests are helping to keep the SDB II program on cost and ahead of schedule,” said Harry Schulte, Raytheon’s vice president of Air Warfare Systems. For the tests, the company mounted the seeker on a UH-1 helicopter and tracked moving targets from different distances, angles, and altitudes using the seeker’s uncooled imaging infrared mode and millimeter wave radar mode. “Our testing program proves uncooled tri-mode seeker technology will consistently and accurately guide its weapon to the target,” said Tom White, Raytheon’s SDB II program director. The seeker’s third mode is a semi-active laser. Raytheon is developing SDB II for the Air Force to engage fixed or moving targets from standoff distances, day or night and in adverse weather conditions.
The Air Force and Boeing agreed to a nearly $2.4 billion contract for a new lot of KC-46 aerial tankers on Nov. 21. The deal, announced by the Pentagon, is for 15 new aircraft in Lot 11 at a cost of $2.389 billion—some $159 million per tail.