Raytheon Company and the U.S. Air Force completed three successful Small Diameter Bomb II (SDB II) program reviews prior to a mid-May Milestone C decision.

During March and April, the SDB II team successfully completed a functional configuration audit, a production readiness review and a system verification review (SVR). A successful Milestone C brief and decision clears the way for low rate initial production (LRIP) in 2015 for SDB II.

“Raytheon has fully tested SDB II and verified that we meet or exceed the requirements necessary for a Lot 1 production decision laid out in the specifications provided by the U.S. government. Every success moves us one step closer to delivering this game-changing capability to our U.S. warfighters,” said Jim Sweetman, SDB II Program Director for Raytheon Missile Systems.

The functional configuration audit, which took place at Raytheon Missile Systems' Tucson facility, assessed SDB II's functionality. The audit also verified through rigorous testing and documentation that SDB II is in compliance with the approved design. The production readiness review successfully proved that the current design of SDB II is ready for production, and the SVR was a product and process assessment to determine that SDB II is ready for LRIP.

The SDB II program will enter production after a successful Milestone C decision, and in the coming months will enter a focused Government Confidence Testing period, followed by operational test in 2016.

SDB II employs Raytheon's unprecedented tri-mode seeker. The new seeker operates in multi-attack modes: millimeter-wave radar, uncooled imaging infrared and semi-active laser. These sensors enable the weapon to seek and destroy targets, both moving and stationary, even in adverse weather conditions from standoff ranges.

SDB II can strike targets from a range of more than 40 nautical miles, with a dynamic warhead that can destroy both soft and armored targets, while keeping collateral damage to a minimum through a small explosive footprint. The highly accurate SDB II offers warfighters the flexibility to change targets after release through a secure datalink that passes in-flight updates to the weapon.

The Department of Defense has validated SDB II as a weapon that meets a critical warfighter need and has invested more than $700 million in the SDB II program.