The U.S. Air Force has awarded Boeing a new contract worth up to $30 million for the next phase of development on the Advanced Tactical Laser.
The ATL is a C-130H aircraft outfitted with a 12,000-pound high-energy chemical laser module that would be used as a weapon against ground targets. It’s the smaller sibling of the Airborne Laser, a highly modified 747 under development that packs a similar weapon but that would be used against ballistic missiles.
Laser gunship hits $30 million bulls-eye | Crave, the gadget blog - CNET.
Boeing Co says it is making “smart” bombs even smarter, able to go after moving targets in places like Iraq and Afghanistan.
The company said last week it started shipping new laser seeker add-ons designed to use laser energy reflected from a target to guide a bomb to what is supposed to be a pinpoint hit, even as the target moves.
The first so-called Laser Joint Direct Attack Munition, or LJDAM, kits were delivered to the Air Force under a $28 million contract for 600 kits awarded in May 2007.
The upgrade adds a relatively low-cost laser sensor to the nose of a JDAM-equipped bomb, a mainstay weapon of the U.S. military in Iraq and Afghanistan, said the Pentagon’s No. 2 supplier by sales.
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