The Griffin Laser Guided Bomb (Griffin LGB) is a laser-guided bomb system made by Israel Aerospace Industries' MBT missile division. It is an add-on kit which is used to retrofit existing Mark 82, Mark 83, and Mark 84 and other unguided bombs, making them into laser-guided smart bombs (with the option of GPS guidance). [1] Initial development completed in 1990. [1]
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The Griffin conversion kit consists of a front "seeker" section and a set of steerable tailplanes. The resulting guided munition features "trajectory shaping", which allows the bomb to fall along a variety of trajectories – from a shallow angle to a vertical top attack profile. IAI claims this gives the weapon a circular error probable of 5 metres. [2]
IAI (which is owned by the Government of Israel) has sold Griffin to the Israeli Defense Forces, [3] the Colombian Air Force, [4] and the Indian Air Force; [5] the system may also have been trialled by the South African Air Force. [1] The IDF used Griffins in 1988 to attack Palestinian targets in southern Lebanon [3] and against Hezbollah in 1996 during Operation Grapes of Wrath. [3]
Bombs using the kit have been used on A-4, F-4E, F-15, F-16, Kfir, Super Tucano, Jaguar, Tejas, Sukhoi Su-30MKI, [6] and Atlas Cheetah D aircraft. [1]
