Airmen Employ Laser Joint Direct Attack Munition in Iraq

JOINT BASE BALAD, Iraq: Airmen employed a Guided Bomb Unit-54 laser Joint Directed Attack munition Aug. 12 against a moving enemy vehicle in the Diyala province to support a combined Iraqi army and U.S. Marine operation.

The GBU-54 is the Air Force's newest 500-pound precision weapon, equipped with a special targeting system that uses a combination of Global Positioning System and laser guidance to accurately engage and destroy moving targets.

F-16 Fighting Falcons from the 77th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron deployed the munitions.

"This employment first represents a great step in our Air Force's ability to deliver precise effects across the spectrum of combat," said Lt. Gen. Gary L. North, the U.S. Air Forces Central commander and U.S. Central Commands Combined Force Air Component commander. "The first combat employment of this weapon is the validation of the exacting hard work of an entire team of professionals who developed, tested and fielded this weapon on an extremely short timeline, based on an urgent needs request we established in the combat zone."

Identified as an urgent operational need in early 2007, the Air Force completed the GBU-54's development and testing cycle in less than 17 months, fielding it aboard 332nd Air Expeditionary Wing aircraft in May.

"We have consistently used precision-guided weapons to engage stationary threats with superb combat effects," said Brig. Gen. Brian T. Bishop, the 332nd AEW commander. "This weapon allows our combat pilots to engage a broad range of moving targets with dramatically increased capabilities and it increases our ability to strike the enemy throughout a much, much broader engagement envelope."

Teamwork in all aspects from development to the actual weapon employment was crucial.

"Teamwork was the name of the game to accomplish this," General North said. "From the experts in our Air Force Materiel Command who shaped our requirements, then developed, tested and fielded the weapon, to our aircraft maintainers, our munitions Airmen, and weapons loaders ... and everyone in between ... they made the operational employment of this weapon possible.

"At end game, on Aug. 12, the team of the joint terminal attack controller, alongside his ground unit commander in this event, ensured all criteria were met for the first combat delivery of the (laser joint directed attack munition). And finally, our F-16 pilot accurately and precisely delivered and guided the weapon to desired weapons effects, the disabling and destruction of an enemy vehicle and personnel," General North said.