America replaces depleted missiles

The Times
March 28, 2002
By Michael Evans, Defence Editor

THE United States has begun a huge restocking of precision-guided missiles to be ready for an attack on Iraq. Two production lines are providing laser-guided bombs to replace those launched on Taleban and al-Qaeda targets.

A spokesman for US Central Command said yesterday that since the American campaign in Afghanistan began last October, 21,000 bombs and missiles had been dropped, the bulk of them precision-guided.

Defence sources said there was now a serious shortage of the new Joint Direct Attack Munitions (Jdam) system, which consists of special guidance kits that can be fitted to ordinary “dumb” bombs to make them “smart”.

The US Navy, which has carried out many of the attacks in Afghanistan from aircraft carriers, at one point ran out of Jdams and had to borrow some from the US Air Force.

An order for 434 Boeing Jdam kits, worth more than £6 million, should be available by the end of this month.

The US is also pushing ahead with a new Tomahawk cruise missile, the Tactical Tomahawk, which could be brought into service later this year. The Tactical Tomahawk can loiter over enemy territory and choose its own target.

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