Making a Good Thing More Versatile: Boeing officials say that the company has successfully tested its laser version of the Joint Direct Attack Munition. The Laser JDAM launched by a USAF F-16 flying at 20,000 feet “scored a direct hit on an armored personnel carrier moving at 25 mph,” states a company release. All that’s needed to turn a standard GPS/inertial navigation system-guided JDAM into an LJDAM is to install a modular kit on the front end—right in the field. Boeing expects to complete development of the 500-pound LJDAM this year and could begin production in early 2007.
The use of a military counter-drone laser on the southwest border this week—which prompted the Federal Aviation Administration to abruptly close the airspace over El Paso, Texas—will be a “case study” on the complex web of authorities needed to employ such weapons near civilian areas and the consequences of agencies…
