The US can already undertake terminal guidance from its satellites with some weapons. As for JDAMs being guided, Aust had its own version under development which was abandoned for political reasons in favour of a US weapon which had less range. Go figure. JORN could not undertale a controlling task as it's not a sender.

I don't know what a JSAM is, but JDAMs and JSOWs are not guided by a separate radar or satellite, per se. JDAMs are guided by an inertial navigation system with updates using GPS satellite positioning updates, but it's not like the satellite is illuminating the target with a radar signal or some such. A JDAM is just a free-falling bomb with the dumb fin section replaced by a smart fin section containing a guidance package, so I wonder how an equivalent Australian weapon could have more range? Based on the combat record, it's hard to imagine any argument against buying JDAMs; they're awesome and have almost single-handedly revolutionized air campaigns. Displacedjim

Sooo sweet! In just a few short years from now, practically every bomb we drop will be hitting within 10 feet of the target. On bigger targets (like ships) we'll even be able to pick which part of the ship to hit. Displacedjim ---- http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Boeing_Completes_Flight_Testing_Of_Weapon_Data_Link_Network.html Boeing Completes Flight Testing Of Weapon Data Link Network by Staff Writers St Louis MO (SPX) Feb 19, 2006 The Boeing Company has successfully completed flight testing of components of the U.S. Air Force's new Weapon Data Link Network (WDLN), which has applications for a number of weapons systems. Tests of new WDLN message formats demonstrated weapon system functionality in operational scenarios that require the use of network data links. The Air Force is developing this capability under the WDLN Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration (ACTD) program. "These tests are a critical component of our on-going research to develop network-enabled weapons technology for multiple weapons platforms, especially Small Diameter Bomb Increment II, Joint Direct Attack Munition, Harpoon Block III and future advanced weapons programs," said Jim Belt, WDLN ACTD program manager for Boeing. The WDLN's two-way communication will allow warfighters to designate moving targets; relay in-flight weapon commands, such as target-location updates and re-targeting; generate seeker commands to track a moving target; and transmit damage assessment information. For the flight tests, Boeing provided surrogate F-15E launch platform avionics, a Small Diameter Bomb guidance unit, Link-16 and UHF Weapon Data Links and a surrogate weapon seeker. The tests were performed on a Boeing King Air test-bed aircraft. The new WDLN messages were developed by a consortium of weapon and data link contractors and manufacturers, under the direction of the USAF Air Armament Center .

The argument against JDAM is that sometimes a LGB is more flexible and has a slightly more accurate CEP (at present). In the future im sure this will change as JDAMs are being tested and improved with the ability to get retargetting infomation once released from the parent aircraft (gives the ability to hit moving targets etc as stated in your last post). This is why there are weapons such as Paveway III (LGB+ GPS in the one bomb) and talks of a laser JDAM. The Australian weapon was called the Kerkanya i believe and had fold out wings giving an unpowered glide range in the order of 50Nm from altitude (i.e. similar to SDB at present, this was 10years ago on a larger bomb)

"A JDAM is just a free-falling bomb with the dumb fin section replaced by a smart fin section containing a guidance package, so I wonder how an equivalent Australian weapon could have more range? " only took me 2 years to realise that I hadn't responded to DJ ;) the australian weapon used longer main flip out wings as opposed to fins. greater lift etc...

oops, should have read souths comment before posting mine. it was the "Kerkanya". It did achieve 80nm AFAIK in final tests.

So does any know if the Diamond-Back scissors type wing kit has actually been deployed and used in the field on JDAMS yet?

Easy. Huuuge, prawn-sized fins glide farther. Beer-powered CPU forgets about gravity.