After over a decade in development, Raytheon’s GBU-53/B StormBreaker precision glide bomb is stepping up production. The Air Force plans to spend $320 million buying 1,500 units of the 204-pound munition, designed to home in on moving ground targets no matter weather conditions or time of day.
These relatively small (7” diameter) but sophisticated weapons will likely be built at a facility in Tucson, Arizona through June of 2027. European missile manufacturer MBDA will contribute the pop-out wings that swing out from the bomb upon launch. The newest order is comparable to past unit costs, equating to $213,000 per bomb.
That is on top of the two,626 units ordered since 2015—spanning the primary five production lots—of which 840 went to the Navy. The Pentagon has suggested it would eventually order as much as 26,610 StormBreakers, though figures of 12,000 or 17,000 have also been floated. The bombs were already authorized on F-15E strike planes, but are within the technique of being integrated into Super Hornet fighters and F-35 stealth jets, too.
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While it’s not quite the Dwarven lightning axe of the identical name utilized by Thor within the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it still has a whiff of the supernatural due to its three-eyed “tri-spectral” seeker, offering the choice of laser-guidance, an uncooled infrared seeker and a millimeter-wave radar—all mounted on the identical moveable gimbal within the nose.
Those sensors may be utilized in concert to enhance accuracy, or used individually if one sensor type is degraded by counter-measures or the explosive device encounters smoke, fog, or rain (which is why ‘StormBreaker’ is all-weather capable). On average, the bomb lands inside a meter of its designated goal.
While gliding to its goal, the bomb’s sensors also allow it to operate as a reconnaissance system, feeding back sensor data to be utilized in locating additional targets or updating mission plans. It will probably even be instructed to go looking for specific enemies, using its infrared system to categorise possible targets and send back targeting suggestions for approval or refusal by a human operator. This permits use in a fire-and-forget manner, improving survivability of the launching aircraft.
For a great measure, StormBreaker also uses jam-resistant GPS and inertial guidance, and may receive course-corrections from other aircraft or ground forces via its two-way Link 16 datalink. That might potentially allow re-directing of strikes to avoid collateral damage to civilians, or to hit higher priority targets as they’re detected.
When launched from maximum altitude, the glide bomb can engage moving targets as much as 45 miles away, or static ones at 69 miles—allowing use from outside the range of short-range air defenses, and even lower-end medium-range systems. Against closer targets, though, the bomb employs an energy-burning ‘spiral mode’ trajectory to avoid overshooting its goal.
The weapon’s 105-pound multi-purpose shaped-charge warhead is claimed to be effective against targets starting from fundamental battle tanks to infantry, unfortified buildings, and patrol boats. The bomb’s ability to hit moving targets is supposed to make it able to enforcing a ‘no-drive’ zone (the ground-based comparable to a No-Fly Zone), forbidding traversal of an area by a warring party’s ground vehicles. It also seems useful for battling navies that depend on quite a few smaller boats, like those of North Korea or the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Between the warhead’s precision and comparatively small size—as in comparison with unguided or GPS-outfitted bombs often clocking in at 500-, 1,000 and a pair of,000 kilos—Raytheon has argued that this bomb is good for minimizing collateral damage in densely populated areas.
Having all of those options built into one weapon streamlines logistics by removing the necessity to load multiple weapon types on a warplane within the interest of accounting for various contingencies.
The air forces of Finland, Germany, and Norway also plan to obtain StormBreakers to arm their fleets of F-35 stealth fighters. Though it was designed during an era focused on battling insurgents within the Middle East and Central Asia, the weapon will figure into European conventional deterrence of Russia’s military.
South Korea has considered obtaining GBU-53/Bs for its F-15K fighters, which might allow them to pickoff North Korean missile trucks from a secure distance. Australia has also requested—and been given authorization to buy—as much as 3,900 StormBreakers for its F-35A fighters at an estimated cost of $815 million, but its unclear if an order has been placed.
It’s been a protracted journey for the winged bomb, which was initially inspired by problems encountered throughout the U.S. Air Force’s 1999 bombing campaign that sought to compel Serbian forces out of Kosovo.
Originally, a rival design from Boeing won an Air Force competition in 2005, but this system was re-competed attributable to a corruption scandal involving the Air Force’s undersecretary-of-acquisition-turned-Boeing-executive. Raytheon’s GBU-53/B prevailed within the re-compete in 2010.
The Pentagon gave Raytheon $794 million in contracts in 2006, 2009 and 2019 shepherding the weapon from R&D through manufacturing and at last to integration and sustainment. During operational testing within the mid-2010s, the weapon allegedly achieved a 90% success rate, though failures noted in government reports led to improvements being made to the bomb’s algorithms. Other problems related to the weapon’s fuse (going off prematurely, or under no circumstances), fold-out wings, and ruggedness in maritime conditions (corresponding to exposure to seawater on a carrier deck) emerged and were addressed.
The project overran costs to an extent that the Pentagon required Raytheon to cover some expenses out of pocket. Major delays to the F-35 program also, at one point, caused congressional overseers to contemplate nixing the bomb’s entry into service. More recently, Raytheon needed to correct a flaw during which vibrations threatened to cause the bomb’s tail fins to come out mid-flight despite restraining clips—something which could damage carrying aircraft, particularly if carried internally.
The Air Combat Command finally approved the GBU-53/B’s operational use on F-15E Strike Eagle jets in September 2020, with fourteen more test shots made in 2021. These beefy twin-engine, non-stealth fighter bombers can carry up to twenty-eight Stormbreaker bombs externally on seven quad racks.
Integration on the U.S. Navy’s carrier-based FA-18E/F Super Hornet jets can be planned using the BRU-55/A twin-storage rack by L3Harris, as you’ll be able to see within the video below published by The Drive.
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Nonetheless, the F-35s that these bombs were originally intended for can’t carry the warheads until until they’re integrated with the F-35’s much anticipated Block 4 upgrade. One issue is that the interior bays of the F-35B jump jet sub-model proved unable to accommodate the BRU-61A racks, which may hold 4 Stormbreakers each and releases them using compressed air ejectors. Following modifications, nonetheless, integration tests are apparently proceeding well, with a series of seven F-35B jump jet test-drops concluded in September of 2022—with two high-speed releases at transonic Mach .9 speeds.
As much as two of the F-35’s internal stations can support the quad racks, for a complete 8 GBU-53/Bs. And eight more that could possibly be mounted externally when stealth just isn’t required.
There have already been captive-carry tests to potentially integrate the weapon on the Air Force’s quite a few F-16 fighters, which also can use the BRU-55 rack. Looking forward, the AC-130W and J gunships, MQ-9 combat drones, F-22 Raptor stealth fighters, A-10 attack jets, and B-52, B-1 and B-2 heavy bombers have, prior to now, also been listed as candidates for StormBreaker integration.
Intriguingly, Raytheon has also suggested adding propulsion—likely a rocket booster—to further extend the weapon’s reach. If that may be done at limited additional cost, the glide bomb might transform into a relatively low-cost missile for selecting off air defenses and high-value mobile targets from a moderate standoff distance.
Unfortunately, there’s no getting across the undeniable fact that, like several other aerial bomb, StormBreaker is all concerning the ugly business of killing people. But the final word hope is its three-eyed sensors could enable it to more effectively destroy valid military targets on the move—like columns of invading tanks, militants racing towards a community in ‘technical’ pickup trucks, or ballistic missile launchers establishing to fireplace—while avoiding flattening every part and everybody else nearby.