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Drafted — not technically validated
Record revision 1 · The 1,000 lb Paveway II, dropped almost entirely by self-designating Navy A-6Es in Desert Storm.
Real-world weapon as described in public sources. Weights and dimensions change with the fins, fuzes and variant fitted; the data plate names the variants its figures describe, and differences are noted beside the number they affect. The record describes the weapon; it is not a guide to employing it.
GBU-16 Paveway II laser-guided bomb · GBU-16
- Type
- 1,000 lb class laser-guidedLGW GlossaryWeapons: Laser-guided weapon. A weapon that uses a seeker to detect laser energy reflected from a laser marked/designated target and through signal processing provides guidance commands to a control system, which guides the… bomb: a Mk 83 with a Paveway II guidance kit [1] [2]
- Origin
- United States
- Weight
- 1,000 lb class [1]
- Dimensions
- Length 3.7 m (12.1 ft); diameter 360 mm (14 in) [1]
- Warhead or payload
- Mk 83Mark 83 general-purpose bomb OrdnanceThe 1,000 lb member of the Mark 80 family, used most by the US Navy and as the warhead of the GBU-16 and GBU-32. general-purpose bomb [1] [2]
- Fuzing
- Not given in the cited sources
- Delivery
- Released toward a target lit by a laser designator; in Desert Storm almost all were dropped by A-6Es that lased their own targets [2]
- Range
- About 8 NM (15 km) [2]
- Carried by
- US Navy and Marine Corps: A-6, F-14F-14 Tomcat AircraftThe Navy's swing-wing fleet defence fighter: two crew, AWG-9 radar and AIM-54 Phoenix., F/A-18F/A-18 Hornet AircraftA carrier-capable fighter and attack aircraft that one pilot can switch between roles on the same sortie. [2]
- US Air Force: A-10A-10 Thunderbolt II AircraftThe Warthog: a straight-wing, armoured close air support jet built around the 30 mm GAU-8 cannon., F-15F-15E Strike Eagle AircraftThe two-seat, long-range, all-weather strike derivative of the Eagle., F-16F-16 Fighting Falcon AircraftA single-engine multirole fighter: fly-by-wire, 9 g, and the US Air Force's main strike and SEAD aircraft., F-111 [2]
- Various NATO air forces [1]
- Variants
- GBU-48 Enhanced Paveway II: Raytheon's dual-mode GPS and laser version [3]
The Navy’s thousand-pounder
The GBU-16 is a 1,000 lb Mk 83Mark 83 general-purpose bomb OrdnanceThe 1,000 lb member of the Mark 80 family, used most by the US Navy and as the warhead of the GBU-16 and GBU-32. fitted with the common Paveway II laser seeker and wings. [1] [2] Like the rest of the family, it guides to the spot of laser energy reflected from a target that someone is lighting with a designator. [2] It entered service around 1976 with the US Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps. [1]
Self-designation
The GBU-16 has mostly been a Navy weapon. In Desert Storm virtually all 219 GBU-16s were dropped by Navy A-6Es, which could lase the target themselves. [2] In December 1998, during Operation Desert Fox, F/A-18 HornetsF/A-18 Hornet AircraftA carrier-capable fighter and attack aircraft that one pilot can switch between roles on the same sortie. from USS Enterprise dropped GBU-16s on Iraq. [2] Raytheon later built the GBU-48 Enhanced Paveway II, a version that adds GPS/INS guidance to the laser seeker. [3]
Sources
- GBU-16 Paveway II. Wikipedia (secondary source). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GBU-16_Paveway_II (accessed 2026-10-27).
- Guided Bomb Unit-16 (GBU-16) Paveway II. Federation of American Scientists, Military Analysis Network, 29 November 1999. https://man.fas.org/dod-101/sys/smart/gbu-16.htm (accessed 2026-10-27).
- Paveway. Wikipedia (secondary source). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paveway (accessed 2026-10-27).
Wikipedia articles are secondary sources and can change; they are cited with the date they were read. NAVEDTRA training manuals and budget justification exhibits are official US publications, but each describes the weapons in service when it was written.