France Completes Test of Smart Bomb

France Completes Test of Smart Bomb 16 July, 2008: FARNBOROUGH, England - The Délégation Générale pour l'Armement procurement office has completed a third and final test fire of the AASM precision bomb in its 1-meter accuracy version, Safran group's Sagem Défense & Securité division said at the Farnborough Airshow. A Mirage 2000 launched the smart bomb at the DGA's Cazau test ground earlier this month, the French procurement office said in a separate statement. In this version of the AASM, the weapon is equipped with an infrared seeker for terminal guidance, in addition to the inertial/GPS guidance kit fitted on an earlier model of the bomb. The INS/GPS system has a claimed accuracy of within 10 meters. The last test fire was intended to show the IR imaging system that allowed the bomb to hit a target that had moved 80 meters after the target's coordinates had been loaded into the bomb at the time of launch. The IR terminal guidance made it possible for the munition to identify the target seconds before strike and correct the trajectory, Sagem said.