Precision Guided Munition

Customer Challenge
In the early 1990's, the Air Force and the Navy identified a need to develop a low cost, autonomously controlled, adverse weather kit for the MK-83, MK-84, and BLU-109 bombs. Large inventories (over 80,000) would be configured with the JDAM guidance kits and accessories. This would essentially enable "free-fall" bombs to be converted into smart munitions. The JDAM program was a pilot program in accordance with the Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act, which authorized relief from various DoD regulatory requirements, in order to achieve lower costs. The JDAM is one of the linchpins of the Defense Department’s precision strike warfare strategy.                            

Kollmorgen Solution
Kollmorgen began working with HR Textron engineering in 1993 on a brushless motor assembly for the Tail Actuator Subsystem. The highly integrated tail kit was expressly designed to enhance the affordability of the JDAM. As a second tier supplier to Boeing, St. Louis, MO, Kollmorgen, already a long-standing and valued supplier to Textron, was able to provide a responsive solution at the necessary cost objective. 

The End Result
The JDAM motor assembly has met or exceeded all technical requirements; the JDAM itself has met or exceeded all operational accuracy requirements. As part of this extremely successful and needed program, Kollmorgen has delivered more than 5,000 motor assemblies through the end of 1998 (3 per kit), and full rate production is expected to begin in 2000.  


Some images courtesy of U.S. Department of Defense.