Contract awarded for new Small Diameter Bomb

[unhappycamper]

Contract awarded for new Small Diameter Bomb
By John Reed - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Aug 10, 2010 16:00:48 EDT

Raytheon will build the Air Force and Navy’s next generation of small diameter bomb following the award of a $450 million manufacturing contract from the Air Force on Monday.

The weapon, known as the SDB II, will debut on the Air Force’s F-15E Strike Eagles and the Marine Corps’ and Navy’s F-35B and F-35C Joint Strike Fighters, respectively.

The bomb advances the technology in Boeing’s original GPS-guided Small Diameter Bomb with a tri-mode seeker featuring millimeter-wave radar, an infrared camera and a semi-active laser, according to the company.

These new sensors will allow the 250-pound weapon to hit moving targets from standoff ranges in bad weather. While the company did not define the weapon’s range, the original SDB can be launched more than 40 nautical miles away from the enemy.

Raytheon beat out original SDB-maker Boeing to build the new version of the bomb following a 42-month contest where both companies developed and tested prototype versions.

[RKP5637]

1. More kill machines... n/t

[saigon68]

2. Good thing there are no hungry people (children) in amerika

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron.

Dwight D. Eisenhower, From a speech before the American Society of Newspaper Editors, April 16, 1953
34th president of US 1953-1961 (1890 - 1969)




Note: We are going to work at the food pantry this afternoon

[Iterate]

3. For the smaller, down-sized wedding

[formercia]

5. Exactly

Moving targets.

Better not fire a gun in celebration.

[zipplewrath]

6. I understand the point

And the dark humor behind it. I will point out however that there were a several reasons for this new weapon, and amongst the many were that they actually wanted "smaller" warheads to use, to avoid excessive damage (currently 1000-2000 lb bombs often get used where this 250 lb would suffice) and they actually want cheaper weapons.

It doesn't get much press, partially because of the absurdity underlying it, but the DoD has been trying to get the per unit cost down of their weapons. To some degree it is so they can have more of them. It is also so that it is cheaper to attack targets. It is their way of addressing the "asymetric warfare" issue. They have only been moderately successful, and some attempts have been horrible failures. But they are trying, even if it is for all the wrong reasons.

[Iterate]

8. Sometimes it’s even a plausible reason

Sorry, I was impertinent and frustrated. I know there are reasons.

Frustrated because there is always a reason for a new weapon; sometimes it’s even a plausible reason. When you are in an arms race with yourself it gets to be self-perpetuating, because, after all, we really don’t need an enemy to prompt something new when we compete against yesterday’s production.

And enemies are so easy to come by. Stand at the center of any group and there will always be someone at the edge who hasn’t quite gotten the memo and might deserve to be shot for it. The better you play the game the more asymmetric it gets, the smaller the target, the more trivial the crime. No use hunting down cake thieves with an aircraft carrier, so the logic goes, get smart about it.

I'd rather though that the good and smart people at the DoD take tomorrow off work and think about what happens when asymmetric warfare becomes asymmetric welfare. What happens when the people you would claim to defend are impoverished by it? What do you do when the war comes home? And they always do.

[zipplewrath]

10. 230+ years

The influence of the military on our country has been there for 230+ years. It predates the DoI. It is rooted in the militia, which was as much a political activity as a military one in most places. The Sec. of State was the first cabinet office formed by congress in 1789. But the path to the White House is more commonly through the DoD than through State. Washington was the first president because of his role as General of the Army, he wore his uniform when he traveled around. He raised one of the first armies to respond to the Whiskey Rebellion. The Lewis and Clark expedition (under Jefferson) was a "military" expedition. Jefferson created West Point because he wanted an "national college". The westward expansion was enabled by the military. They would establish outpost which became "guarded" locations for commerce to be conducted. "Manifest Destiny" was achieved predominately through military means.

Truth is, that alot of our culture that we have today is defined by its interaction with our military. West Point educated generations of "engineers" that ultimately build the roads, bridges, canals, and railroads that fueled much of our early economic development. WWI brought in a whole host of cultural changes that can be traced back to the military. Short haircuts became common then because the draftees often came in with head lice. Pershing had to set up "schools" in europe to teach our troops enough reading and math skills to be able to accept written orders, read maps, and read army manuals. The end result was that this level of education (what we'd consider high school today) became considered "normal" and ultimately the next generation was encouraged to actually go beyond the 6-8th grade level all the way to roughly the 12th year.

WWII was credited with teaching men to wear watches, and use zippers on their pants instead of buttons, as well as "safety razors" to shave on a daily basis. The subsequent GI bill then made college, not just high school, as the "new normal". It also redefined our international policy, and the Pearl Harbor attack changed our attitudes towards a standing military ever since. And it virtually defines the nature of our international cooperation, switching from a society of people worried about "entangling international treaties" into one that depends upon the alphabet soups of NATO, SEATO, and the UN as integral portions of our defensive system. And it made the defense department (no longer the "war department") onto a par with the state department in defining and managing our foreign policy.

And along the way, weapons development (something that started around the time of steel) was one of the driving forces behind economic and industrial development and advances, ushering in our entire "space program" complete with astronauts chosen from the military services, riding on top of modified ICBM's.

The MIC is a recent development in many ways, and is in no way the sole, nor driving, reason behind the nature of our military structure or influence. It merely knows how to leverage it.

[Iterate]

11. I know the history.

I know the code of honor and the pride. I know the claims of trickle-down benefits to the civilian sector. But at some point the excessive spending and constant state of war will corrupt and destroy not only the services, but the nation they've sworn to defend. Declare victory and demilitarize. Enough already.

[zipplewrath]

12. Not sure we'd know how

As I say, it is hard to separate what this country is, from its military based traditions.

[liberal N proud]

4. What good could have been done with that $450 million?

War mongers, adults with the mentality of an adolescent with fireworks. Always wanting to blow shit up.

[WinkyDink]

7. What was that about "no money for social programs", again? The detonation hurt my hearing.

[Ichingcarpenter]

9. Business is making a KILLING half a billion dollars worth

that blows things up.

Boy now they to need to harness the energy when one explodes so I can light my house.


INSANITY.

[MadHound]

13. Gee, that money could pay the salaries of 1,225 teachers for ten years,

But this administration would rather blow things up. What a sick set of priorities our leaders have.