South Korean Light Combat Aircraft to Integrate Sensor Fuzed Weapon

An operating division of Textron Systems, Textron Defense Systems, has recently announced that the Air Force of the Republic of South Korea has selected its Sensor Fuzed Weapon (SFW) for integrating into the FA-50 light combat aircraft of the Korea Aerospace Industries.

In 2010, Textron is likely to commence offering inert integration rounds through a foreign military sales mission. This mission is headed by the Defense Acquisition Program Administration of South Korea and the Eglin Air Force Base Air Armament Center.

The SFW can precisely identify and counter threats from a broad range of stationary and mobile maritime and land targets, which range from marine threats to soft-skinned vehicles to heavy armored battle tanks. The SFW covers a broad area with the least collateral damage and without any dangerous unexploded ordnance. The U.S. government has subjected the SFW to a flight test program involving several tests under different conditions and verified that it offers more than 99% dependability.

The SFW incorporates the smart Skeet warheads and the BLU-108 submunition of Textron Defense Systems, which incorporates dual mode active laser and passive infrared sensors. When a Skeet warhead is not able to identify a valid target on its lofted trajectory, one of the warhead’s three safety modes will be activated. The first two modes help the Skeet in self-destruction 8 s after the launch or under a 15 m altitude above ground level. The third feature of the Skeet involves a time out device that is self-neutralizing and within minutes of landing on the ground renders the warhead inert. The redundant, in-built self-neutralization and self-destruct logic features are critical elements that differentiate between the SFD and the legacy munitions.