Raytheon Small Tactical Munition (STM) Laser-Guided Mini-Gluide Bomb/Precision-Guided Munition with Semi-Active Laser-Seeker and GPS/INS Guidance for Close Air Support (CAS) and Ground-Attack Missions

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

By David Crane
defrev (at) gmail (dot) com

The following article is property of DefenseReview.com (DR) and is copyrighted material. If you are reading this article on another website other than DefenseReview.com, please email us the website address/URL (where the unauthorized DR article reprint is located) at defrev (at) gmail (dot) com. Thank you.

July 17, 2012

Wired Danger Room recently published a piece on the Raytheon Small Tactical Munition (STM) mini-precision-guided bomb, a 13.5-pound, 22-inch-long laser-guided bomb/missile/precision-guided munition weighing about a tenth (1/10) the weight of a Lockheed Martin HellFire II missile, the iconic air-to-ground missile. The HellFire, of course, has been used for years to highly-lethal effect against enemy ground targets when fired from General Atomic MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper armed/weaponized UAS/UAV/drones and Boeing AH-64D Apache Longbow attack helicopters. The Small Tactical Munition is significantly smaller than the Raytheon Griffon A/B missile, which can be fired from both aerial and ground platforms.

When DefenseReview (DR) came across the Wired story, we immediately looked through our NDIA Special Operations Forces Industry Conference 2012 (SOFIC 2012) photos to see if we'd snapped a photo of the developmental Small Tactical Munition at Raytheon's booth, but it looks like we missed it. We'd prefer to think of this as Raytheon's fault, not ours, that either it wasn't there, or it wasn't featured very prominently, because we somehow managed to photograph pretty much every other important aerial munition and/or aircraft at the show–but the buck stops with us (DR). If it was there, we should have photographed it. Note to the Raytheon PR folks: Look out of journalists and industry shows, because sometimes we miss things. So, please enjoy the embedded generic photo courtesy of Raytheon.

Anyway, the Raytheon STM is interesting due to its combination of the following features:

– lightweight munition package
– high degree of maneuverability
– advanced semi-active laser seeker
– GPS/INS Guidance (Global Positioning System/Inertial Navigation System Guidance)

The above features enable small UAS/UAVs like the AAI Shadow Tactical Unmanned Aircraft Systems (TUAS) to carry a host of Small Tactical Munitions to engage multiple moving ground targets from one small aerial platform with truly surgical precision. The U.S. military could conceivably saturate a large area with STM-armed small UAS/UAVs just flying around in a surveillance and/or overwatch capacity either for perpetual security operations or CAS (Close Air Support) for infantry combat teams, including Special Operations Forces (SOF). Based on the size and weight of the STM, it would appear that the weapon is designed for one-shot/one-kill capability against ground vehicles like civilian cars, SUVs and small trucks (pick-up trucks).

Asymmetric warfare is about to get even tougher for the enemy.

Photo Credit: Raytheon

Company Contact Info:

Raytheon Company
870 Winter Street
Waltham, MA 02451-1449
Office: 781-522-3000
Website: http://www.raytheon.com

Related Articles:

BCB/AAI SQ-4 RECON Nano UAS/UAV (NUAS/NUAV) Bat-Like Unmanned Spy-Copter Stealth Drone Aircraft for “Over the Hill” Observation and Reconnaissance: Special Operations Forces (SOF) Get a New (Small) Backpackable/Manpackable VTOL Eye in the Sky…Maybe (SOFIC 2012 Video!)

SpotterRF Radar Backpack Kit (or “Backpack Radar Kit”): Compact, Lightweight Backpackable/Manpackable Ground Moving Target Indicator (GMTI) Motion-Tracking Perimeter Surveillance Radar (PSR) System for Military Special Operations Forces (SOF) Perimeter Security and Force Protection Applications (SOFIC 2012 Demo Video!)

MBDA TiGER (Tactical Grenade Extended Range) Small UAS/UAV (SUAS/SUAV)/Mini-Flying Bomb/”Kamikaze Drone” for Tactical Reconnaissance and Precision-Kill Missions is Low-Observable, Seriously Lethal: Kitty’s got a temper!

AeroVironment (AV) Switchblade Backpackable/Manpackable “Kamikaze Drone” SUAV/Mini-UAS (Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicle/Mini-Unmanned Aircraft System) “Over-the-Ridge” Precision-Kill Weapon: Tactical Reconnaissance Meets Low-Order-Detonation Lethality

Prioria Robotics Maveric Flexible-Wing Mini-UAS (Mini-Unmanned Aircraft System) at SOFIC 2011: Manpackable, Throwable SUAV (Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) with Flexible/Bendable Wing! (Photos and Video!)

Raytheon/EAI Laser-Guided 2.75-inch/70mm Hydra Rocket

Shipborne Raytheon Laser Weapon System (LaWS) Shoots Down Four Drone Aircraft over the Water in U.S. Navy Test (Video!): Can it Protect our Aircraft Carriers from the Latest Above-Water Threats?

MBDA Semi-Active Laser-Guided Zuni Rocket with 4-Shot LAU-10 Rocket Pod (Launch Pod): Precision-Guided Rockets Get a Big Boost (Photos!)

Fury and CAMCOPTER S-100 UAS/UAVs Armed with Lightweight Multirole Missile (LMM)

General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper UAS/UAV Retrofitted with Gorgon Stare Electro-Optical/Infrared (EO/IR) Multi-Camera System: The All-Seeing Eye in the Sky…You Look at It, You Die.

General Atomics MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper Armed/Weaponized UAS/UAVs to See Competition from China? Chinese Unmanned Aircraft System/Drone Tech Catching Up.

Smartphone Airstrike: Need to call in an airstrike? There’s an app for that. Need to kill bad guys? Just smartphone it in.

NRI AutoCopter Hyper-Lethal Armed Mini Robotic Attack Helicopter/Gunship with Turbine Engine Debuts

Micro Air Vehicle: Backpackable UAV for Tactical Reconnaissance & Surveillance

Heat-Seeking Missile Killer: Northrop Grumman Guardian Anti-Missile Laser System/Missile Defense System (MDS)/Counter-MANPADS Aircraft Pod (Military and Commercial Aircraft) vs. Russian KBM Igla-S (SA-24) “9M342″ Man-Portable/Packable Fire-and-Forget Surface-to-Air Missile System/MANPADS.

SPIKE Shoulder-Launched Fire-and-Forget Guided Missile Kills Fast-Moving Threats

Raven SUAV for Fast Tactical Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance Ops

Raytheon Developing ‘Smart Scope’ for U.S. Military SPECOPS and LE SWAT Snipers

Raytheon Develops Cellular Bomb Detector / Hijacker

Raytheon Small Tactical Munition (STM) Laser-Guided Mini-Gluide Bomb/Precision-Guided Munition with Semi-Active Laser-Seeker and GPS/INS Guidance for Close Air Support (CAS) and Ground-Attack Missions by

About David Crane

David Crane started publishing online in 2001. Since that time, governments, military organizations, Special Operators (i.e. professional trigger pullers), agencies, and civilian tactical shooters the world over have come to depend on Defense Review as the authoritative source of news and information on "the latest and greatest" in the field of military defense and tactical technology and hardware, including tactical firearms, ammunition, equipment, gear, and training.

Check Also

Todd Jarrett Shows DR the New Staccato C 2011 Compact Combat/Tactical 9mm 1911 Pistol at SHOT Show 2024! (Videos!)

By David Crane david (at) defensereview (dot) com February 27, 2024 DefenseReview (DR) ran into …