Lockheed Martin successfully completed the first flight tests of the Paveway II Plus Laser Guided Bomb (LGB). This test is a first in series of tests to evaluate the highly precise and destructive Paveway series of laser guided ammunition for the U.S Navy. The all new Paveway II Plus is outfitted with the next generation laser guidance package, providing the bombs with enhanced precision than the previous Paveway LGBs.

The first flight test was comprised to two GBU-10s (General Purpose Bomb), that were retrofitted with the newly designed Paveway II Plus MAU-209C/B Computer Control Group. The bombs were dropped by a U.S Navy F-18 Super Hornet at the naval test range in China Lake, California. The bombs were also embedded with telemetry sensors and were programed to take a pre-determined flight path. The GBU-10s switched to their laser guidance at the precise moment as planned and scored directs hits on their respective targets.

According to Joe Serra (Sr. Manager, Precision Guided Systems, Lockheed Martin),

“The Paveway II Plus is a revolutionary performance improvement to the Paveway II LGB weapon system. Our team fully embraced the challenge to cost effectively improve the precision of this mature weapon system without impacting logistics. The Paveway II Plus provides significantly better impact accuracy without any changes to the aircraft platform or weapon employment.”

The Department of Defense has an exclusive contract with Lockheed Martin, where in, the defense contractor has the sole rights to the Paveway series of laser guided bombs, including all variants of the Paveway II MK-80 series LGBs. Two of the crucial components of the Paveway series LGBs, Enhanced Laser Guided Training Round and Dual Mode Laser Guided Bomb are also exclusively provided by Lockheed Martin.

Via Space War.