Boeing has won a $9.9 million contract to integrate the GBU-56(V) 4/B laser-guided bomb on to the F/A-18 Hornet’s weapons platform.
The contract involves systems engineering and logistic support planning required for the production acceptance test and evaluation of the DSU-42/B precision laser guidance set and the KMU-558 series guidance set on the GBU-56(V) 4/B laser-guided bomb.
The effort also includes integrating that munition on to the F/A-18 weapons platform, the company announced Tuesday.
Work is expected to be completed by February 2019. Naval Air Systems Command is the contracting activity.
The GBU-56/B is the dual-mode, laser and GPS/inertial navigation system [INS], -guided variant of the GBU-31/B 2,000 lb Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) that utilizes the MK 84 (general purpose) and BLU-109 (penetrating) bombs to afford a moving target capability.
For the MK 84 version of the bomb, this is likely designated as the GBU-56(V)2/B and fitted with the DSU-40/B semi-active laser (SAL) and KMU-556/B guidance set.
For the BLU-109 version of the bomb, this is designated as the GBU-56(V)4/B and is fitted with the DSU-42/B SAL seeker and KMU-558/B guidance set.
