WASHINGTON — The first bomb that struck al-Qaida leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was a Paveway GBU-12 model finished in Tucson at Raytheon Missile Systems.
It was followed by a GBU-38 strapped to a satellite-guided Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM), said Lt. Gen. Gary North, the top U.S. air commander in the region.
To make a Paveway laser-guided bomb, Raytheon Missile Systems receives bombs from the U.S. government and installs guidance systems made in Tucson on the front end, as well as stabilizers made in Dallas on the rear end, said company spokesman Alan Fischer.
"We manufacture the front and the back end, then we put them on the bomb and deliver it to the customer," he said.
The JDAM guidance system is made by Boeing Co.
Both bombs are designed for pinpoint strikes meant to curb damage outside the immediate target. Both were dropped by a single F-16C fighter jet that was part of a constant air surveillance effort focused on what the pilots knew to be a "high-value target," North told reporters.
People are also reading…
An additional bomb was dropped because al-Zarqawi had been targeted in a "reinforced" safe house, said Maj. Brenda Campbell, an Air Force spokeswoman. "Using two munitions was the right choice," she said.
The attack was against a house in a date palm grove, North said. "We knew with 100 percent assurance that the house that you have seen destroyed was the house that Zarqawi was in," he said.
The so-called JDAM is a guidance kit, built by Boeing Co. and costing less than $25,000, that converts existing unguided free-fall bombs into accurately guided "smart" weapons.
JDAM continues to be the Air Force "warfighter's weapon of choice," an official Air Force Web site said in a headlined article in March.
To strike its target, the JDAM relies on a built-in inertial navigation system assisted by the Global Positioning System, a satellite navigation tool operated by the U.S. Defense Department but widely used by the public and industry.
The laser-guided Paveway bomb uses a 500-pound MK-82 general warhead. Gliding on folding wings, it homes in on a target that has been illuminated with a laser designator, guided by the reflected energy.
Raytheon Co. said that at the U.S. government's request, it had quadrupled its production of Paveway bombs after the Sept. 11 attacks. Fischer would not disclose the per-unit cost.
The Paveway was the most widely used precision-guided munition in the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, with more than 8,000 dropped, Fischer said. Raytheon has a $33.8 million contract to provide the Air Force with Paveway 2 laser-guided bomb components this fiscal year.
Raytheon Missile Systems is Southern Arizona's largest private employer, with 10,756 full-time-equivalents as of the end of 2005, according to the annual Star 200 survey.
