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Litening Strikes
As combat operations in Iraq wind down,
B-52/Litening combo makes debut

ROBERT WALL/WASHINGTON

B-52 operators have used their new targeting pod for the first time to drop precision ordnance in combat, capping a sometimes frustrating effort by the Air Force Reserve Command to field the Litening-2 targeting system on the veteran bomber.


The effort to integrate the Northrop Grumman Litening-2 targeting pod on the B-52 began in October and was completed in February.
Earlier this month, one of two pod-equipped B-52s dropped two 500-lb. GBU-12 laser-guided bombs on a radar and command complex at an airfield in northern Iraq. The crew also used the targeting pod to survey an area before dropping a Wind Corrected Munitions Dispenser (WCMD) against a dispersed target complex.

The Litening-2 enhancement also enables B-52 crews to identify a target using either the TV or forward-looking infrared sensor. Unlike the B-1B and B-2, the B-52 has long been hampered by the fact that crews could not identify a target at 35,000-ft. altitude where the bomber generally operates. The target-identification feature allows B-52 operators to receive a GPS target coordinate, slew the pod's optics to the location, and verify that the coordinates match the intended target before dropping bombs, says Maj. Jeff Swanson, who has championed the upgrade for the Air Force Reserve Command.

The pod also allows the bomber to provide near-instantaneous battle hit assessment. Unlike fighters that are often constrained by relatively short endurance, the B-52 can attack a target, wait for the smoke to clear to image the target area and, if necessary, attack a second time, Swanson noted.

To help in the damage assessment and to better work with forward air controllers, the B-52 community is devising ways to capture on a laptop the sensor picture, which can be transmitted to personnel on the ground for analysis.

The pod is mounted on the same store station usually occupied by the AGM-142 Have Nap standoff missile. Critics of the enhancement charged it would be too difficult to stabilize the pod there; but test and operational results show that isn't the case, Swanson stressed. The pod is controlled by the radar navigator.

The Air Force plans to field more pods--modifying 12 B-52s, three belonging to the reserve command. However, the service expects to buy only six pods. But Swanson would like to see an even more aggressive modernization plan, with all B-52s modified and 35-40 pods fielded. Although the current pod configuration uses a 256 X 256-pixel charge-coupled device, versions to be bought in the future are expected to have higher resolution.

In addition to precision targeting, B-52s will retain the capability to carry GPS-guided bombs and the WCMD.Being able to mix laser-guided ordnance and GPS-bombs gives crews the flexibility to attack a target regardless of weather.

Upgrading the bomber has not been problem-free. The reserve command has advocated the enhancement for about six years, but the initiative met stiff resistance by some in the active-duty Air Force.

"Everybody looked at this as a fighter capability," Swanson said. The tide turned when the effort gained the support of Lt. Gen. Bruce Carlson, who oversees the Air Force bomber force, and moved into high gear last October when the reserves found funding to start the process. Boeing finished writing the required software by the end of last year, with aircraft modifications completed in January.

Testing began in late February, when the project encountered another obstacle. During one of the first test missions, none of the laser-guided bombs found their target, causing critics to second-guess the effort. But the problem was found to be linked to the weapons, not the pod; and in a later test, five of six laser-guided bombs found their target--the sixth missed again owing to a munitions malfunction.


©April 28, 2003 The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc.
The pylon they are mounting the pods on are between the inboard and outboard engine ppods where they used to mount the chaff rockets.

was also reading that the Buffs or B-1Bs will get the Small Smart Bomb packaged in a "canoe" that was developed for the F/A-22 that holds 4 SSBs each and one of these canoes will fit on each station of the internal rotory racks !!!!!! so a bone could deliver 96 precision weapons on a single pass !!!!!!!!

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