SA buys Paveway: Raytheon

South Africa has inked a deal with US defence giant Raytheon Company for an undisclosed number of Paveway II laser-guided bomb (LGB) kits for its fleet of Saab Gripen advanced light fighter aircraft. Raytheon, who made the announcement at the Farnborough airshow, did not disclose a value for the deal, which is also not yet visible on the Armscor tender bulletin system.

The US company says the deal is the first significant American sale to SA in 25 years. "Raytheon will provide the South African military with LGB computer control groups and air foil groups that transform "dumb" bombs into precision-guided munitions for operational test and evaluation on South Africa's Gripen fighter aircraft," the company says in a statement.

"Armscor awarded a contract on behalf of the South African Air Force (SAAF) for the procurement of LGB bomb kits. Armscor ... is the officially appointed acquisition organisation for the South African DoD (Department of Defence), the statement adds. The direct commercial sale was negotiated with the assistance of South Africa's Atlantis Corporation and calls for Raytheon to begin delivery next year. In addition to the weapons, Raytheon will provide air- and ground-crew training.

Harry Schulte, vice president of Raytheon's Air Warfare Systems product line says the "combat-proven Paveway family of weapons is integrated on more than 22 aircraft and serves 41 nations around the globe, making this weapon the ideal choice for the South African warfighter. Raytheon is the sole provider of the Paveway family of weapons and is committed to providing the warfighter with a reliable direct-attack weapon at a cost-effective price."

It is understood the SAAF chose the Paveway over the similar Denel Dynamics Umbani LGB kit because the former is already integrated onto the Gripen, meaning the acquisition does not incur the SAAF any development and testing costs. The order is therefore in line with the SAAFs stated intention of ordering weapons that have already been cleared for use on the Gripen. 

Armscor issued a request for quotation for Paveway last year. The Paveway LGB kit turns a standard Mk 82 500-pound (227kg) general-purpose bomb into a GBU-12 laser-guided air-to-ground "smart" bomb and the Mk 83 1000lb (454kg) bomb into a GBU-16. A high degree of accuracy is achieved when an operator (either airborne or ground-based) illuminates a target with a laser designator. The bomb is then guided to a spot of laser energy reflected from the target. The SAAF has already ordered the Rafael/Zeiss Litening III laser designation pod (LDP) for use on the Gripen C single-seat and D dual-seat fighters.

The weapon will provide the Gripen fleet with a full night-attack/all-weather precision guided munition (PGM) capability. According to Raytheon's fact sheet for the Paveway II, 99 deliveries of guided munitions will yield a circular error probable (CEP) of only 3.6 feet, versus a CEP of 310 feet for the same number of unguided bombs dropped under similar conditions.

Source: DefenceWeb