Yulian Ardiansyah
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: Jun 20, 2022 -
: 7:02 pm
The Royal Thai Air Force (RTAF) recently announced that it will acquire ten Korean GPS Guided Bomb (KGGB) guidance kits for THB47.9 million (USD1.39 million) made by LIG Nex1 to arm its combat aircraft.
The guidance kits will be installed on Thailand’s domestically-produced Mk. 82 general-purpose bombs and will likely be used for testing purposes. In early 2022, RTAF announced that the service is looking to procure long-range precision-guided munitions, such as the Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) and GBU-39 Small Diameter Bombs (SDB) from the United States.
Developed in 2007, the KGGB features a main section containing foldable wings and a Global Positioning System/Inertial Navigation System (GPS/INS) guidance module, as well as a tail section to give a standard general-purpose bomb a long-range precision strike ability. Also known as a “glide bomb”, the weapon’s maximum range depends on the altitude and speed at the point of its release from the carrying aircraft.
During the test in 2012, the kits fitted on 500 lb. (226 kg) Mk. 82 bombs have a practical maximum range between 47 to 103 km with release altitudes from 3 to 12 km. LIG Nex1 has claimed that the KGGB has an accuracy between 0.4 to 8 meters of Circular Error Probability (CEP), or better than 25 meters CEP of the U.S.-made JDAM. The bomb entered mass production in 2013 for the Republic of Korea Air Force (ROKAF).
The bomb is certified to be carried and fired from F-4, F-5, F-15E, F-16, and FA-50 aircraft platforms without any modification to the airframe.
With this acquisition, Thailand will be the third confirmed export customer of this South Korean-made glide bomb after Indonesia and Saudi Arabia. Indonesia acquired an unknown quantity of KGGB guidance kits for testing and development purposes by PT. PINDAD in 2016 while Saudi Arabia also acquired an unknown amount of the bombs in 2017.
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