Story ID: 
Paris 2011: Smart bomb heads IAI line-up
By: David Donald
Caption: Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) is showing off its latest precision-guided munition here at Le Bourget.
Word Count: 310
Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) is showing off its latest precision-guided munition here at Le Bourget. Known as MLGB (medium-weight, laser-guided bomb), the weapon has dual-mode guidance and is intended for use by light attack aircraft, as well as by multi-role fighters.
Weighing 253 pounds, MLGB has a number of advanced features corresponding to key requirements in the modern battlefield. It is five feet six inches long and carried on standard 14-inch lugs. Fixed cruciform wings of 17-feet-four-inches span give a good standoff glide capability when released from altitude, and the relatively light warhead provides low collateral damage effects.
MLGB employs a combination of GPS and semi-active laser guidance, the latter providing better than one-meter CEP accuracy and a capability against moving targets. If laser guidance is not available, then the system guides the weapon to GPS coordinates with slightly reduced accuracy. Fuzing options allow the choice of air-burst, impact or delayed (penetration) detonation.
Some of IAI’s other capabilities are also on show here in Paris, including sensor turrets from the Tamam division. The latest products are the MOSP3000 14/15-inch and MiniPOP eight-inch stabilized turrets, both of which can accommodate up to five sensors and are integrated with INS/GPS systems to enable geo-referencing and geo-pointing capabilities.
Additional IAI capabilities in the spotlight are the company’s work on nano-satellites, which are typically less than 22 pounds in weight, and the ELM-2288 AD Star mobile air defense and threat alert radar.
AD Star is a product of IAI’s Elta subsidiary, which among its wide electronics portfolio produces ISR (intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance) systems. Elta’s ELI-3120 manned compact ISR system has recently been installed in a King Air 350 aircraft and delivered to a Latin American customer for missions targeting drug traffickers, illegal logging and mining, deforestation, border crossing and pollution.