Shortly after appointing its new President and Managing Director in India, Inderjit Sial, Textron Inc. will through its subsidiary Textron Defense begin supplying the Indian Air Force with 512 CBU-105 sensor fuzed munitions next month. The intelligent air-deployed anti-armour weapon, currently in use in Iraq by the US Air Force, has already begun deliveries to the USAF programme office for the IAF. The two governments signed a $257.73-million deal in 2010 following India's interest in the weapon in September 2008. The weapon, which deploys independently guided sensor fuzed BLU-108 units, will be deployed from IAF Su-30MKI and Jaguar aircraft.
The Indian Air Force was highly impressed with the weapon system during a demonstration in 2008 following data shared about the weapon system and its operational deployment in Iraq. Specific data about the accuracy of the weapon as well as its post-conflict "cleanliness" was found to be appealing to the IAF. The weapon will serve as an effective deterrent along its borders considering that it is capable of taking on whole columns of armoured vehicles and tanks with only a few passes even from high altitude. Depending on the operational experience, the IAF may order more CBU-105s.
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