The Laser-Guided Bomb: Case History of a Development

Abstract

This report is a case study of a successful R and D product--the laser guided bomb (LGB). The narrative begins with the work of the Army's Missile Command at the Redstone Arsenal (1962), continues with the initial LGB prototype competition between Texas Instruments (TI) and North American- Autonetics (1966), details the decisions within Hq USAF to continue the development through the engineering prototype contract with TI (1968), and ends with the award of the acquisition contract to TI (1969). Six facets of the LGB development are analyzed: competitive prototype development; early and repeated testing of system hardware; interaction of technology and requirements in design and performance specifications; incremental development; delegation of development decisions; and the availability of contingency development funds. These six features, working interactively, provided a flexibility in development that produced a low-cost, high-performance system within a relatively short time frame.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jun 01, 1974
Accession Number
ADA017126

Entities

People

  • Peter Deleon

Organizations

  • RAND Corporation

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Aerial Warfare
  • Air Force
  • Aircrafts
  • Control Systems
  • Governments
  • Guided Bombs
  • Laser Beams
  • Laser Guidance
  • Laser Guided Weapons
  • Laser Seekers
  • Military Budgets
  • Munitions
  • Precision-Guided Munitions
  • Second World War
  • Test And Evaluation
  • Test Facilities
  • Unguided Bombs

Readers

  • Inertial Navigation Systems.
  • Life Cycle Cost Analysis
  • Technical Research and Report Writing.

Technology Areas

  • Directed Energy