The Griffin Laser Guided Bomb (Griffin LGB) is a laser-guided bomb system made by Israel Aerospace Industries' MBT missile division. It is an add-on kit which is used to retrofit existing Mark 82, Mark 83, and Mark 84 and other unguided bombs, making them into laser-guided smart bombs (with the option of GPS guidance).[1] Initial development completed in 1990.[1]
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The Griffin conversion kit consists of a front "seeker" section and a set of steerable tailplanes. The resulting guided munition features "trajectory shaping", which allows the bomb to fall along a variety of trajectories – from a shallow angle to a vertical top attack profile. IAI claims this gives the weapon a circular error probable of 5 metres.[2]
IAI (which is owned by the Government of Israel) has sold Griffin to the Israeli Defense Forces,[3] the Colombian Air Force,[4] and the Indian Air Force;[5] the system may also have been trialled by the South African Air Force.[1] The IDF used Griffins in 1988 to attack Palestinian targets in southern Lebanon[3] and against Hezbollah in 1996 during Operation Grapes of Wrath.[3]
Bombs using the kit have been used on A-4, F-4E, F-15, F-16, Kfir, Super Tucano, Jaguar,Sukhoi SU 30 MKI[6] and Atlas Cheetah D aircraft.[1]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ a b c d "Griffin laser-guided bomb (LGB) system (Israel), Bombs – Precision and guided munitions". Jane's Air-Launched Weapons, Jane's Information Group. July 31, 2012. Retrieved 20 February 2013.
- ^ "Laser-Guided Bomb Kits". Israel Aerospace Industries. Retrieved 20 February 2013.
- ^ a b c Shlomo Aloni (10 November 2009). Israeli A-4 Skyhawk Units in Combat. Osprey Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84603-430-5. Retrieved 20 February 2013.
- ^ "Latin America : Special Report". Flight International. 20 March 2012. Archived from the original on 18 May 2012. Retrieved 19 February 2013.
- ^ Arie Egozi (July 11, 2008). "Israel to supply India with Griffin 3 bomb guidance kits". Flight International. Retrieved 20 February 2013.
- ^ Twitter https://twitter.com/kunal_biswas707/status/1476855666618732547. Retrieved 2021-12-31.
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External links
edit- IAI MBT's brochure on the Griffin Archived 2011-05-15 at the Wayback Machine
- Photographs of a Colombian Air Force Griffin
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