New laser guided penetrator bomb for Spanish Hornets

Raytheon Company and Explosivos Alaveses (EXPAL), SA, of Spain have introduced the BPG-2000 Laser Guided Penetrator Weapon following completion of a successful flight test programme in Spain earlier this year.

The BPG-2000 consists of a Paveway III laser guidance kit mounted on the newly developed EXPAL CPE-800 Penetrator Bomb and ER501 impact delay hard target penetrating fuze. At a total weight of 2,022 pounds, the BPG-2000 is lighter than the standard Paveway GBU-24.

The programme has been set up by the Spanish Ministry of Defense to meet the Spanish Air Force requirements to integrate the weapon on their F/A-18 Hornet, Mirage and the future Eurofighter aircraft.

The test programme consisted of planned drops at various altitudes, ranges, airspeeds and guidance modes from a Spanish Air Force F/A-18. The new bomb, part of the Paveway III family of weapons produced by Raytheon's Missile Systems unit, scored seven successful hits in seven attempts during the test drops in Spain between February and June.

Five of the drops were accomplished against guidance-scoring targets at the Arenosillo Test Range, and two drops were against hardened targets at the Bardenas Range.

The test programme finished with seven out of seven successful hits all with outstanding delivery accuracy. EXPAL's penetration and fuze performance was two out of two against the hardened targets.

The BPG-2000 has been tailored with a total weight that is optimum for carriage on the F/A-18 and has successfully completed aircraft integration by the Spanish Air Force flight test organisation at Torrejon Air Base, Spain.

This new weapon complements the existing family of Paveway III weapons, which includes GBU-22s with 500-pound MK82 bombs; GBU-24s with either 2,000-pound MK-84 general purpose bombs or 2,000-pound BLU- 109 penetrator bombs.

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