Raytheon 
has released an image of its winning Small Diameter Bomb Increment II design. The illustration shows details of the GBU-53/B, such as its antenna placement. This air-delivered munition, dubbed SDB II, is meant to attack both stationary and moving targets in any kind of weather via its tri-mode seeker. The Air Force on Monday chose the GBU-53/B over a competing design offered by a Boeing-Lockheed Martin team. Raytheon is expected to start delivering SDB IIs in 2013 for carriage on platforms like the F-15E and F-35. Boeing builds the SDB I, which is designed to strike fixed targets.
The U.S. sent Air Force F-16s over central Syria in a show of force following the Dec. 13 killing of two U.S. Army Soldiers and one American civilian interpreter by a gunman linked to the Islamic State group.
