Contributor - UK

David Donald

With an increasing accent on delivering effects with minimal collateral damage, and at lower acquisition and operational cost, interest is growing for ever-smaller precision weapons. One of the leaders in the field is the Weapon &amp; Sensor Systems business of Textron Systems, which is developing two weapons that are expected to be the first members of a growing family.

 


The smallest of the two is the Fury glide weapon that weighs just 12.5 pounds, allowing its carriage by a range of unmanned aerial s and manned aircraft. It employs semi-active laser and selective availability anti-spoofing module GPS guidance, as well as tri-mode fusing that can be programmed to provide maximum effect against various target sets. At present, the fusing has to be programmed on the ground, but in the future a mid-air programming function is planned.

 


Three Fury weapons can be carried on a rack that fits on to a standard Hellfire launcher, allowing multiple weapons to be carried by platforms such as the Predator/Reaper and AT-6 Wolverine light attack platform. It has been successfully launched in demonstrations from the Shadow 200 and Shadow M2 UAVs, and another demonstration will take place this summer against a moving target.

 


A larger weapon under development is the G-CLAW, which builds on the clean area weapon (CLAW) blast-fragmentation unitary area munition by adding guidance capability. The 50-pound weapon has a 20-pound warhead that packs a powerful punch after detonation by a height-of-burst fuse.

 


G-CLAW can be carried on racks for both internal and external carriage, such as a four-weapon rack under the wing of the Scorpion light jet. Alternatively, it is sized for the common launch tube (CLT) that has been adopted by U.S. Special Operations Command for a variety of platforms. The CLT allows munitions to be ejected into the airflow from within the aircraft or from a weapons bay.

 


In the CLT application the G-CLAW ejects backwards from the tube before righting itself and gliding to the target. This has already been demonstrated with a drop from a Cessna Caravan. Rack launch has been performed from an AT-6.

 


These initial tests were performed with GPS guidance only, but later this summer G-CLAW will be demonstrated with the semi-active laser guidance as well.

Textron’s Advanced Weapons Tailored for Today’s Operations

Textron Systems has developed two small precision glide weapons that answer some of the demands of today’s operational environment

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