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Background  –  CF-18  Ground Attack  –  Paveway Guided Bomb Unit

Note:  This page is provided as background  for the proposed deployment of  CF-18 fighters  to Afghanistan as close air support aircraft.

The Paveway is a  laser-guidance and steering package added to Mk 80 series bombs. A laser seeker replaces the bombs’ nose cone while the simple cruciform tail is replaced with longer flip- out fins (which help to extend the bombs’ glide- slopes). The basic  Mk 80 bomb casing remains unchanged but the laser seeker head obviously precludes the use of nose-mounted fuses.

Paving the Way  –  Mk 80 Series ‘Guided Bomb Units’ Paveway laser-guided bombs began US combat trials in 1968 [1] but they did not enter CF service until 1999. The deteriorating situation in Kosovo had prompted NATO’s Operation Allied Force –  air strikes against Serb targets in former-Yugoslavia. Canadian CF-18s were ill-prepared for modern ground-attack missions and it was necessary to arrange for a quick transfer of Maverick missiles and Paveway laser-guided bombs from US stocks. 300 Pave- way were bought from the US immediately before NATO attacks on Yugoslavia were launched from Aviano, Italy.

Spot on Target  ...  If,  Perhaps,  a Little Late into the Game Orders were quickly placed with Raytheon, the US makers of Paveway, for a further 1,000 kits. Four Paveway types are in CF service – the GBU-12/B for 500lb Mk 82 bombs, the GBU- 10 (1,000lb Mk 83), the GBU-16 and  the GBU-24/B  (both for the 2,000lb Mk 84 bomb). Of  530 bombs dropped by CF-18s during Operation Allied Force, 361 were Paveways giving a sense of the importance of laser-guidance. The laser-guided bomb will likely be the new ‘standard’ bomb in Afghanistan.

[1]Paveway was developed by Texas Instrument primarily to reduce the number of bombs required to knock out bridges in North Vietnam. Paveway has semi-active laser-guidance which homes on reflected energy directed at the target by a laser designator onboard the aircraft.