E50 – JDAM: the GPS-Guided Bomb

Mike sits down with Steve “Wingie” Wingfield to discuss the Joint Direct Attack Munition, aka the JDAM—the world’s first operational GPS-aided bomb.
Wingie played a big role in the Air Force, doing weaponsflight testing and requirements writing, then went on to have another career at Boeing working on JDAM and other weapons.
He’s one of the few people who got to see the entire storyarc, from the pain points in Desert Storm that started the whole thing, to other evolutions like Laser JDAM and extended range JDAM, and how those programscame to be.
If you want a rare inside look at how one of the most successful acquisition programs in the past 30 years happened, this episode is for you.

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00:00
01:02 intro
05:43 JDAM name origin
06:56 accuracy spec origin
10:43 Desert Storm McPeak Memo
11:16 GAM before JDAM
12:29 Kosovo combat debut
14:39 40k for 40k competition
17:44 JDAM adoption
22:50 production feast & famine
25:19 9/11 demand signal
26:33 surging with standards
28:43 Iraqi Freedom GPS jamming
29:53 Laser JDAM origins
33:38 the impact
36:01 hitting moving targets
37:54 106 mph!
39:39 MOP
41:33 JDAM-ER
41:47 Ukraine
42:53 integration and modularity
43:41 aerial mining
46:22 outro

#military #airforce #navy #aviation #tech #technology #JDAM #boeing #GPS #defense #desert storm #iraq #syria #afghanistan #miltech #engineering #USA #security