French Air Force Successfully Demo Raytheon Paveway II GBU-50

Raytheon and the French Air Force successfully completed a demonstration of a penetrator variant of a Paveway GBU-50 from a Mirage 2000D multirole fighter jet.

"Raytheon is committed to delivering GBU-50's unique capabilities to our French customer,” said Mike Jarrett, vice president of Air Warfare Systems. "Raytheon offers a proven, cost effective dual mode solution that is fully compatible with the MK-84 and BLU-109."

Each Enhanced Paveway II guidance and control section is compatible with warheads ranging from the 250 pound MK-81 to the 2,000 pound MK-84 and BLU-109. Offering a range of smart fuze settings from air burst to post impact, along with selectable terminal impact angles and angle of attack control, the GBU-50 takes the capabilities of both the MK-84 and BLU-109 to a new level.

The Paveway bomb kit affordably transforms "dumb" bombs into cutting edge precision-guided munitions. The all-weather GBU-50, with its GPS/precision terminal laser guidance is in production with more than 200 units delivered to date.

The Paveway family of laser only guided and dual-mode GPS/laser-guided bombs has revolutionized tactical air-to-ground warfare. Bombs equipped with Paveway kits have been put to the test and proven themselves time and again. Paveway laser-guided bomb kits comprised the majority of air-to-ground precision-guided weapons used in Operation Iraqi Freedom, Enduring Freedom and Unified Protector.