Turning bombs into cruise missiles

 War Zone:

For the second time in as many weeks, Boeing has made an announcement related, at least in part, to the ongoing development of a powered derivative of the Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) precision-guided bomb family. The company is pitching the Powered Joint Direct Attack Munition (PJDAM) as a flexible and lower-cost cruise missile that can be used to attack targets on land and ones at sea. It could help countries, including the United States, readily boost their stockpiles of stand-off munitions.

Boeing announced earlier today that it had signed a new memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Australia's Ferra Engineering regarding the continued production of pop-out wing kits for the unpowered JDAM Extended Range (JDAM-ER) series. The company said that this deal would also include an "intent to explore applications" for the PJDAM. As currently designed, the PJDAM uses the same wing kit as the JDAM-ER.
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At its core, the PJDAM consists of four key components, the engine, the pair of pop-out wings, a main guidance package derived from GPS-assisted inertial navigation system one found on typical JDAMs, and a standard low-drag 500-pound-class bomb as its warhead.

The PJDAM is effectively a small cruise missile and is designed to offer significantly greater range even over the unpowered JDAM-ER. A standard wingless JDAM can glide around 15 miles to its target, depending on the release altitude. With its pop-out wings, the JDAM-ER can hit targets up to 45 miles away. Boeing says that the PJDAM is expected to be able to reach targets at least 300 miles away.
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This is another way to bomb the enemy without exposing a pilot to being shot down. 

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