Re: Wind Corrected Munitions Dispenser stats, costs, factoids


Well, this looks interesting for itself, and compared to the present
buy.



http://hrw.org/backgrounder/arms/clustermunitions/5.htm#_ftn27
Page dated June, 2004

[avec snippage]


Air Force Procurement Requests Wind Corrected Munitions Dispenser

The Air Force budget includes two major cluster munition-related
requests-Wind Corrected Munition Dispensers and Sensor Fuzed Weapons.

It has asked for $58.67 million to procure 2,507 Wind Corrected
Munition Dispensers.[27] The WCMD is a guidance system that attaches
at the rear of four munitions-the CBU-103 (Combined Effects
Munition), CBU-104 (GATOR antipersonnel and antivehicle mines), CBU-105
(Sensor Fuzed Weapon), and CBU-107 (Passive Attack Weapon)...

The request includes, for the first time, production of some units of
the extended range WCMD (WCMD-ER) variety, which adds a wing kit that
increases the cluster munitions' standoff range-the distance at
which they are fired. The Air Force has gradually decreased the size
of its requests for WCMDs. It procured 4,881 in FY 2003 and 3,715 in
FY 2004 and plans to ask for 500 in FY 2006. The Air Force plans to
procure 7,500 WCMD-ERs by FY 2012. This year, it has also requested
$28 million for RDT&E, which includes funds for development of the
WCMD-ER. [28]

First used in Afghanistan in 2001, the WCMD seems to have increased the
accuracy of air-launched cluster bombs. The Air Force used it
extensively in Iraq. The 1,206 cluster bombs it reported using in Iraq
included 818 CBU-103s and eighty-eight CBU-105s.[29]...

Sensor Fuzed Weapons

The Air Force has also requested $117.023 million for 315 CBU-97 Sensor
Fuzed Weapons (SFWs), which incorporate cutting-edge cluster munition
technology.[31] The SFW has the same canister as the more common
CBU-87 or -103, but it contains ten BLU-108 submunitions instead of 202
BLU-97s. The SFW's submunitions each contain four hockey puck-sized,
explosive "skeets" with infrared sensors that guide them to armored
targets and self-destruct mechanisms to reduce the number of duds. The
Air Force plans to add WCMDs to these CBU-97s to create the guided
version of the SFW, the CBU-105. The procurement request is slightly
smaller than the past two years, but from FY 2004 to FY 2009 the
quantity will remain between 302 and 320 per year. The Air Force will
continue to procure the SFW through FY 2012.

The United States used the SFW for the first time in Iraq. The Air
Force dropped eighty-eight of them... The Army introduced a similar
artillery-launched weapon in Iraq called the Sense and Destroy Armor
Munitions (SADARM), but it has not requested additional money to
procure SADARMs this year.



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[27] Department of the Air Force, Fiscal Year 2005 Budget Estimates:
Procurement of Ammunition, February 2004, Item No. 7, Wind Corrected
Munitions Dispenser, p. 98,
http://www.saffm.hq.af.mil/FMB/pb/2005/proc.html (retrieved April 7,
2004).

[28] Department of Defense Budget for Fiscal Year 2005, Program
Acquisition Costs by Weapon System, February 2004, p. 33,
www.dod.mil/comptroller/defbudget/fy2005/fy2005_weabook.pdf (April 7,
2004).

[29] This does not include two CBU-107s, which contain steel rods
rather than explosive submunitions.

[31] Department of the Air Force, Fiscal Year 2005 Budget Estimates:
Procurement of Ammunition, February 2004, Item No. 5, Sensor Fuzed
Weapon, p. 90, http://www.saffm.hq.af.mil/FMB/pb/2005/proc.html
(retrieved April 7, 2004).

.