Development and Test of a Guidance-Integrated Fuze for Glide Bomb Applications

The U.S. Air Force is pursuing the development of guided small diameter bombs (SDBs) while imposing challenging requirements for high-altitude launches at relatively slow speeds. Recognizing that such systems and requirements may preclude the use ofconventional fuzes (e.g., the FMU-152), the Air Force has initiated efforts to develop innovative fuzes which do not derive arming power from the traditional air-turbine initiator but rather from the weapon's battery. However, the elimination of the airturbine complicates the design of the fuze's safeing and arming (S&A) device, particularly for glide bombs. The Phase I objective was to develop an innovative S&A algorithm which would be capable of isolating the fuze from the weapon's battery until theweapon was safe to arm. The Phase I effort concluded that a three-stage S&A algorithm would satisfy this objective. The algorithm included: a weapon-release module driven by umbilical separation indicators, a flight-detection module driven by IMU data,and a safe-separation module driven by a timer. This proposed Phase II effort will expand the Phase I results by teaming with two leading fuze manufactures, Dayron and KDI Precision Products, to develop, test, and deliver two brassboardguidance-integrated fuzes, both of which implement the S&A algorithm.