Textron looks to UN decision on Sensor Fused Weapon

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Textron Defense Systems is awaiting the outcome of a United Nations meeting on the Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) Treaty nextweek to assess potential market implications for its Sensor Fused Weapon (SFW).

The only area weapon in the US inventory that meets the Department of Defense's goal of delivering a submunition destruction rate of over 99%, the SFW was in combat use in the opening weeks of Operation "Iraqi Freedom" in 2003 when the US Air Force dropped around 100.

Carried by types including the Boeing B-1B and Lockheed Martin F-16, the 453kg (1,000lb)-class SFW deploys 10 submunitions, each of which contains four individual "skeet" warheads. These use a passive infrared array, an active laser sensor and a timeout feature to deliver a "dud rate" of below 1%. Each SFW can destroy multiple vehicles over an area greater than 121,000m² (1.3 million ft²) in one pass, its manufacturer says."