Some Lockheed bomb parts taken out of combat

WASHINGTON, June 15 (Reuters) The on-board systems that steer thousands of Lockheed Martin Corp laser-guided bombs have been taken out of combat by the US Air Force, military officials told Reuters.

The disclosure that the Lockheed product has been sidelined since 2005 suggests that rival Raytheon's equivalent was used in the recent raid that killed Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq.

Lockheed is the Pentagon's single biggest supplier.

''The fact is there were missed distances that we just couldn't tolerate'' in the Lockheed unit, said Steve Rives, director of the 507th Combat Sustainment Squadron at Hill Air Force Base, Utah, which buys precision munitions for the Air Force.

The component at issue was designed for use on several laser-guided munitions, including the 500-pound GBU-12. That is one of two bombs used in the air strike that killed Zarqawi last Wednesday.

The brains of that laser-guided bomb ''most likely'' were produced by Lockheed rival Raytheon Co. since an optimized Lockheed variant has not yet been sent to Iraq, Rives said in an interview yesterday.

Raytheon cannot discuss operational uses of its product, said Alan Fischer, a spokesman at Raytheon's missile systems unit in Tucson, Arizona. The company's Paveway II laser-guided bombs were in the US Air Force inventory ''and available for their use,'' he said.

The other bomb dropped by a US F-16 fighter jet on a house with Zarqawi in it was a satellite-guided Joint Direct Attack Munition built by Boeing Co.

Known as a seeker, the Lockheed Martin device faulted by the Air Force is formally called the MAU-209/B computer control group. It detects and guides a bomb to a target reflecting laser illumination.

Air Force officials, in a written reply to queries from Reuters, said Lockheed's MAU-209/Bs had been restricted to use as training rounds.

About 2,500 were involved, Rives said in a follow-up telephone interview. Asked whether they had fallen far from their targets in testing, he said: ''The answer to that question is yes.'' The Lockheed MAU-209/B seekers were removed from combat use in January 2005, Air Force officials said. They would be used up in the next two years in training exercises, they said.

''The restriction was implemented due to anomalies exhibited during laser-guided bomb drops,'' said Merrie Schilter-Lowe, a spokeswoman at Hill Air Force Base.

A newer Lockheed variant dubbed the MAU-209B/B is being produced and has no restrictions on its use in combat, the Air Force said.

Bethesda, Maryland-based Lockheed said it has always been in compliance with the Air Force's contractual specifications on the devices.

The US Navy, which also uses MAU-209/B units supplied by both Lockheed and Raytheon, had already returned Lockheed's MAU-209/B seekers to combat-ready status, said Jennifer Allen, a spokeswoman for Lockheed's Missiles and Fire Control business unit.

Cmdr. Thomas Hole, deputy program manager for precision-guided munitions at Patuxent River Naval Air Station in Maryland, said the Navy lifted its restrictions about three months ago after completing its own analysis.

''I can tell you with great confidence that the Lockheed Martin MAU-209/b meets the performance specifications in the contract that we signed to buy them,'' he said.

Raytheon said on Monday it was awarded the majority of Air Force funding available for laser-guided bomb components for fiscal 2006, or 33.8 million dollars.

Lockheed, on the same day, said it won a 32.7 million dollars contract to deliver such kits to the Air Force after ''extensive'' Navy-Air Force testing requalified its hardware.

REUTERS DH RAI0631