Improved LongShot™ Successfully Tested
During March 2001, Leigh Aerosystems Corporation successfully completed two test flights of its improved LongShot Wing Adapter Kit in the Arizona desert. These tests represented the first operational validation of recent improvements to LongShot, designed to offer a new standard of cost-effectiveness in standoff weapon capability. The most important of these improvements is an upgraded guidance and control unit incorporating a GPS-aided inertial navigation system and Honeywell HG-1700 inertial measurement unit.
Attached to CBU-87(D-4) inert munitions and released from a J-35 Draken aircraft over the Yuma Proving Ground, LongShot guided the extended range munitions from ranges of 12 and 20 nautical miles.
The 12-mile test included a 20 degree off-axis launch from 14,000 feet altitude with a release speed of 0.75 Mach. The longer-range test was conducted straight on at an altitude of 25,000 feet and a release speed of 0.8 Mach. Although the concrete-ballasted host munitions did not allow a demonstration of LongShot’s delivery accuracy of the bomblets normally carried by the munition, each mission was performed as if the munition were live, so that the wing kit separated from the munition at the tactically
optimum point over the target, sending the ballasted munition to the target in a ballistic trajectory. One munition fell within 7 meters from the target, represented by a stake in the ground located on GPS coordinates. The other munition fell within 9 meters of the target stake. More importantly, the 2 meter difference in miss distances of the two munitions occurred so that the edges of the craters created by each ground impact touched each other. Additional data will be obtained under an ongoing flight test program at Eglin AFB to demonstrate the performance of LongShot-equipped CBU-87/B launched from standoff range with F-16 aircraft.
LongShot was developed to provide both range extension and guidance for inventory air-to-ground munitions up to the 1,000 pound class. Depending on the host munition, it can provide range extension between 40 and 60 nautical miles. It uses a patented, one-kit-fits-all approach, making it compatible with awide variety of general purpose bombs, cluster bombs, laser guided bombs and sea mines. LongShot employs a unique wireless interface between cockpit and weapons, permitting it to operate independent of aircraft systems. This makes it immediately compatible with all fixed wing combat aircraft, including those not equipped with the MIL-STD 1760 bus required for smart weapons. As a result, LongShot-equipped munitions do not require expensive hardware and software modifications to the aircraft. A valuable feature of LongShot is its ability to customize the terminal flight profile for any host munition, optimizing its effectiveness in a particular tactical scenario. Currently, LongShot is being produced at low rate for
three international customers. Significant additional capacity is planned to be in place within the next two years.