Forum: F-35 Armament, Stores and Tactics

Raytheon SDB II [F-35 Simulated Video]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUhlZmmxdqA

"Published on Apr 18, 2012 by ssolo99"

F-16.net Sponsor

SDB II will provide warfighters with new, critical capability 19 July 2012

http://raytheon.mediaroom.com/index.php ... ;item=2139

"TUCSON, Ariz., July 19, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Raytheon Company's (NYSE: RTN) GBU-53/B Small Diameter Bomb II (SDB II) program achieved a major milestone when it successfully engaged and hit a moving target during a flight test at the White Sands Missile Range, N.M. Currently in engineering and manufacturing development, SDB II is designed to engage moving targets in adverse weather and through battlefield obscurants.

During the July 17 test, the crew of a U.S. Air Force F-15E fighter staging out of Holloman Air Force Base, N.M., released the GBU-53/B, which then acquired, tracked and guided to a moving target using its tri-mode seeker, scoring a direct hit.

"SDB II is the first in the next generation of smart weapons that uses multi-mode seekers and fully networked enabled data links to engage moving targets in bad weather or battlefield obscurants in high threat environments," said Harry Schulte, vice president of Air Warfare Systems for Raytheon Missile Systems. "Raytheon is committed to this program's success because SDB II will give the warfighter a mission-flexible weapon capable of defeating threats such as swarming boats, mobile air defense systems or armored targets."

SDB II was validated by the Department of Defense's Joint Requirements Oversight Council as a weapon that fills a critical capability gap for the military. In addition to its adverse weather, moving-target capability, SDB II can hit targets from stand-off ranges. It has a powerful warhead capable of destroying armored targets, yet keeps collateral damage to a minimum through a small explosive footprint.

SDB II's capabilities include the ability for the weapon to be employed in three primary attack modes, each with a subset mode, for a total of six engagement modes. A dual band, two-way weapon data link for in-flight target updates and status reporting allows post-launch control of the weapon by the launching aircraft, a Joint Terminal Attack Controller (JTAC), or a third party...."

What's a "subset mode"?

What's a "subset mode"?

STEREO?

ECHO?

I don't know much about the SDB capability. Could the F-15 have dropped 4 of them, each engaging a different target in the column. Like an Apache Longbow/Hellfire?

Multi-drop, multi-target = YES

Actually it can go one step further, if you look at the video that started this thread you will see that 2 SDBIIs were launched from two separate F-35s and each targeted a separate vehicle. This separation & assigning of targets is a function of the Mission Systems whereby the flight lead (or a designated planner) can pick out targets, assign targets to particular F-35s, and the shoot-lists are automatically sent to their respective F-35s.

The SDBII can even prioritize not only which types of targets (Track vs Wheel), but also in what order (likely per-selected). Sequence of hits:

1. Lead tank (to halt the column)
2. Rear tank (proper tactics to box in the column)
3. Second tank
4. Second to the last tank.

spazsinbad wrote:

STEREO?

ECHO?

Yikes!! The hiccups are back Sad

spazsinbad wrote:

STEREO?

ECHO?

Yikes!! The hiccups are back Sad

STRIKE! Me Lucky. Very Happy

But not with an SBD II!

I would love to see what a B-1 or B-2 load of SDB-IIs could do. Don't know if the fire control system can designate that many targets simultaneously though so it could require multiple passes?

I see a future Blk upgrade (if it does not already have it) for SDB2 where you can drop multiple bombs aimed only at a set of coordinates. They would then proceed to talk amongst themselves, determine target priorities, assign targets, and attack in specific order, all automatically without the need for the pilot to control the bombs.

SDB2 with swarm logic.

SpudmanWP wrote:

I see a future Blk upgrade (if it does not already have it) for SDB2 where you can drop multiple bombs aimed only at a set of coordinates. They would then proceed to talk amongst themselves, determine target priorities, assign targets, and attack in specific order, all automatically without the need for the pilot to control the bombs.

SDB2 with swarm logic.

That's a pretty ugly concept. How many SDB's could a B-1 carry? 300? 500?

Reminds me of this:
http://schlockmercenary.wikia.com/wiki/ ... rous_Array

Considering that the SDB2 already has dual two-way datalinks (Link-16 and UHF), it's just a matter of software and processing power.

SpudmanWP wrote:

Considering that the SDB2 already has dual two-way datalinks (Link-16 and UHF), it's just a matter of software and processing power.

Well, presumably you could distribute the processing - have an initial snapshot passed between the weapons to establish what they're looking at then assign a zone for consideration to individual weapons, breaking the weapons in flight into groups for each zone. Having crunched the problem down into just a couple of bombs looking at a relatively small sector of the picture, you then have to have some sort of protocol to flag up weapons going US or targets disappearing so you could then prompt a re-assignment if need be.

Thinking out aloud here from a totally uninformed position but I'm guessing there's ways to do it if the weapons can share the information they see.

One question, came up on another forum, can you get SDB two in a row in the B model or is the bay too short ?