Viper Strike and the reuse of Brilliant Weapons
Gizmodo.com has a recent article up about the Viper Strike glide bomb, which has evolved from a special operations weapon to a much more widely used small weapon for UAV employment. But while the GBU-44 is a mere "smart" laser- and GPS-guided bomb, it is evolved from one of a suite of "brilliant weapons" that began development some time ago, of which almost none have made it to service.
Viper Strike is evolved from BAT, the "Brilliant Anti-Tank" submunition that was designed to be delivered by MLRS projectiles. When deployed over the battlefield, the BAT would search the nearby area until it found a likely high-value target like a tank, then aim itself and attack. This "brilliant" behaviour of finding its own target distinguished it from mere "smart" weapons which could guide into a target once the target was pointed out.
One of my old bosses was the guy who closed down BAT in 2003, so I'd bet he'd be happy to see this technology getting re-used, even if it's in less than "brilliant" form.
The Army killed another "brilliant" munition not long ago, the tank-fired Mid-Range Munition or MRM. MRM could operate in smart mode guiding on ot a target, or in a semi-active mode where it would find its own target once launched into a general area. It demonstrated out well, though admittedly after multiple prior iterations of similar programs (TERM, STAFF) that did not prove out. MRM died with FCS because someone along the way decided the Abrams shouldn't have a requirement to fire this munition.
At least one brilliant Army munition has seen effective active service: the Sense and Destroy ARMor artillery projectile, or SADARM. SADARM was an artillery-delivered submunition that would deploy a parachute then search the local area using radar for a tank, and it if found one, would attack from the top with an explosively-formed penetrator. The effort was terminated after procuring about 900 rounds, probably due to cost, but 3rd Infantry Division deployed SADARM during the invasion of Baghdad.
I once talked to some of the 3ID troops that employed SADARM, and they were very enthusiastic about the round's performance. In their words: "we fired a couple of SADARM rounds at an Iraqi tank formation, and the tanks just evaporated." Officially, about one in every three SADARM rounds fired destroyed a tank, which is a pretty good exchange rate and darn cost effective given the price of a main battle tank these days.
Who knows, perhaps one day some of these brilliant weapons may return ...
