Navy Arms Carrier-Launched F/A-18s With Breakthrough “Stormbreaker” Bomb

By Kris Osborn, President, Center for Military Modernization

The US Navy has now deployed F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter jets with a breakthrough high-tech weapon able to track moving targets for distances up to 40-miles and use three different kinds of target guidance technologies.

It’s called the Stormbreaker, a new generation of air dropped bombs in development with the Air Force and Raytheon for many years, and the weapon is now ready and operational with the US Navy.

The weapon’s development began as what was called the Small Diameter Bomb II, and its signature advantage was the pioneering use of a “tri-mode” seeker – a guidance, sensing and targeting system able to use infrared, millimeter wave and semi-active laser technologies to track targets. Renamed “Stormbreaker” in more recent years, the weapon uses a two-way data link to track targets in all weather conditions over distances up to 40-miles. Although a single air dropped bomb and not a cruise missile, it almost has a Tomahawk-like ability to loiter to a degree as it tracks changing target specifics.

A Raytheon essay on the weapon quotes Paul Ferraro, President of Air Power at Raytheon speaking to the targeting versatility of Stormbreaker, saying it provides “aviators with the ability to strike targets in difficult and dynamic scenarios.

“StormBreaker features an innovative multimode seeker that guides the weapon by using an imaging infrared camera, millimeter-wave radar, and semi-active laser in addition to, or with, GPS and inertial navigation system guidance,” a Raytheon essay explains.

The weapon is not only all-weather capable due to its millimeter wave technology but also brings additional fuzing and energetics or explosive options. The integration of new explosive materials and warhead components is what enables the weapon to kill tanks, a Raytheon statement said.

Specifically, the Stormbreaker warheads are equipped with shape charge jets, fragmentation and other technologies which bring an ability to destroy tanks.