PAVEWAY laser guidance/Related Articles

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Parent topics

• Precision-guided munition [r]: A powered or unpowered weapon that adjusts its flight path to hit a specific target, with a circular error probability in the low number of meters, often less than the radius of destruction ^[e]
• Laser-guided bomb [r]: The first modern class of precision-guided munition, in which the guidance system moves aerodynamic control fins of a glide bomb to keep it centered on the point at which a laser designator beam touches the target ^[e]

Subtopics

Generations & technologies

• Bang-bang control [r]: A technique of aerodynamic control of glide bombs and related weapons, in which either the control surface deflects completely or not at all; contrast with the proportional aerodynamic control used by manned aircraft and some advanced missiles ^[e]
• Proportional aerodynamic control [r]: The form of flight control used on aircraft and advanced missiles, in which there is a continuous range of motion of the control surfaces, so that movements of the yoke or joystick, or equivalent in the flight computer, can produce a corresponding control surface deflection throughout the range from minimum to maximum; contrast with bang-bang control in which the control surface is either deflected or not ^[e]
• PAVEWAY I [r]: First generation of PAVEWAY laser guidance kits for conventional bombs, consisting of a gimballed (i.e., mechanically scanned) laser seeker head, a Computer Control Group (CCG), and aerodynamic control surfaces, both "wings" to improve glide and moving control surfaces, usually on the nose, using bang-bang coarse directional control ^[e]
• PAVEWAY II [r]: Second generation of U.S. laser-guided bombs, still in partial service as it is considerably cheaper than PAVEWAY I and PAVEWAY III; improved PAVEWAY I still using bang-bang control and difficult to deliver at low altitude, but with a more sensitive seeker and substantial cost reduction engineering ^[e]
• PAVEWAY III [r]: Third generation of U.S. laser-guided bomb control, with a principal objective of enabling low-altitude drops; first with a fully programmable computer; considerably more expensive than PAVEWAY II ^[e]

Control

• Laser designator [r]: A device that puts a distinctive, usually invisible, pattern of laser energy on an object, for purposes such as designating the target of a laser-guided bomb ^[e]
  • AN/AVQ-26 [r]: Also known as PAVE TACK, an airborne imaging infrared and laser designator pod used on the F-111 and F-4 Phantom II ^[e]
  • LITENING [r]: AN/AAQ-28 electro-optical target acquisition and tracking pods, which mount on aircraft wing pylons. ^[e]

Payloads

• BLU-109 [r]: 2000 pound class warhead designed as a hard target penetrator; ballistically identical to Mark 84 bomb, BLU-111, and BLU-126 so can accept Joint Direct Attack Munition and PAVEWAY laser guidance kits ^[e]
• BLU-119 [r]: 2000 pound warhead of the CrashPad design, intended for fast defeat of chemical weapons and biological weapons; uses PBXN-109 insensitive high explosive ^[e]
• BLU-126 [r]: Low Collateral Damage Bomb; carbon fiber nonfragmenting bombcase and reduced PBXN-109 explosive filler when compared to BLU-111 with which it has identical ballistics and compatibility with Joint Direct Attack Munition and PAVEWAY laser guidance kits ^[e]
• Mark 8x series conventional bomb [r]: The main family of U.S. high-explosive unguided gravity bombs, to which guidance kits such as the Joint Direct Attack Munition or PAVEWAY laser guidance can be attached ^[e]

Versions

• GBU-10 [r]: 2000-pound Mark 84 bomb with PAVEWAY II guidance ^[e]
• GBU-12 [r]: 500-pound Mark 82 bomb with PAVEWAY II guidance ^[e]
• GBU-16 [r]: 1000-pound Mark 83 bomb with PAVEWAY II guidance ^[e]
• GBU-24 [r]: 2000-pound-class laser-guided bomb with U.S. PAVEWAY III guidance ^[e]