Hi, Leslie!
Any A/OA-10A, which is modified for the Northrop Grumman Litening targeting pod, can drop laser guided bombs (LGBs) without external guidance. Currently, only the 500-pound Guided Bomb Unit 12 (GBU-12 Paveway II) is used by Warthogs. According to rare published “frontline Photos” usually only two GBU-12s are carried, either on stations 5/7 or 4/8.
The GBU-12 is originally a standard “iron” or so called “dumb” bomb Mk-82, fitted with a laser seeker and mechanical control surfaces enabling it to self-guide to a target pinpointed by a laser designator.
As part of the Litening system integration only station 9 (right wing) is actually “wired” for the pod. That means, if the pod is mounted only station 3 (left wing) remains for the AGM-65 Maverick guided missile. Prior to the Litening modifications, stations 3/9 just outboard of the main landing gear sponsons were generally loaded with Mavericks – after Operation DESERT STORM usually only one missile on a single rail launcher LAU-117 on each station.
The first combat drops of GBU-12s by A-10s took place during the early combat phase of Operation IRAQI FREEDOM (OIF), and only over western Iraq. These drops were conducted by pilots from two Air National Guard A-10 units, which were selected in fall 2002 to be the first ever to modify A-10s to employ with the Litening pod: the 131st Fighter Squadron, 104th Fighter Wing (Massachusetts ANG), Barnes MAP (Tailcode “MA” ), and the 118th Fighter Squadron, 103rd Fighter Wing (Connecticut ANG), Bradley IAP (Tailcode “CT”). During the force build-up for OIF, both squadrons teamed up to form the 131st Expeditionary Fighter Squadron under operational control of the 387th Air Expeditionary Group – part of the 410th Air Expeditionary Wing. In contrast to the well known 332nd AEW at Ahmed Al Jaber AB, Kuwait, as the only deployed location for A-10s during Operation SOUTHERN WATCH and the main deployed location for A-10s during OIF, the deployed locations of the 387th AEG and the 410th AEW are officially still “classified”. Meanwhile (thank some “leaks” on the web), I know exactly where their were and which other units were assigned or co-located. But in this “open” forum, I will not disclose or discuss these “sensitive” details.
I will stress that all informations posted in this reply were cleared by U.S. military PA offices and published on the public web. Additionally informations came from U.S. local news media and also from the website
www.a-10.org.
In one or two days I will post some related photo links related to this topic.
Regards
J.J.
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