MBDA seeks munition revolution
European missile house MBDA has unveiled a new family of gliding smart munitions, but officials played down suggestions it could compete as a Small Diameter Bomb II alternative for F-35 Joint Strike Fighter operators.
The new missiles, known as SmartGlider, will come in two variants; a 120kg ‘light’ variant that integrates a 100kg warhead, and a 1,300kg ‘heavy’ variant that will come with a 1,000kg multi-effect warhead.
The light variant has similarities with the Raytheon SDB being developed for integration on the F-35 but MBDA officials told Shephard that it is ‘not constrained by F-35 requirements’ and is actually
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