Air Force Research Laboratory Munitions Directorate

A Brief History of the Munitions Directorate The roots of the Air Force Research Laboratory Munitions Directorate can be traced to the establishment of the Armament Subdivision, US Army Signal Corps Aircraft Engineering Department, McCook Field, Dayton OH in Nov 1917. In 1939, the Armament Branch was redesignated as the Armament Laboratory, Materiel Division Experimental Engineering Section at Wright Field. Apart from the Armament Laboratory’s work, air armament efforts were initiated at Eglin Field during the early stages of World War II. Since this early start, the development of high-speed jet aircraft has outpaced the development of conventional air armament and created a dilemma of using modern fighter bombers to deliver World War II vintage munitions. Sparked by the heightening Vietnam conflict, research and development activities for non-nuclear armament were accelerated. On March 1, 1966, the predecessor to the Munitions Directorate, the Air Force Armament Laboratory, was created to provide a community of scientists, engineers, and infrastructure to advance conventional weapons technology. From the unit's inception, the research and development efforts have focused on user needs. The significance of applying leading edge technology to provide the user with the state-of-the-art weaponry makes a dramatic impact on the outcome of any given strike mission. Technology endeavors over recent years have manifested themselves in a variety of non-nuclear air armament, some of which were employed in effective "surgical" strike operations in Libya and Desert Storm. Today, the Munitions Directorate is a part of the Air Force Research Laboratory and continues to make technological breakthroughs for future air armament. The Directorate's emphasis is on the weapon's capability to operate with complete autonomy and with high accuracy when delivered against ground targets in all weather conditions, day or night, using long- or short-range delivery tactics. Air-to-air missiles benefit from this technology with increased single shot kills and larger "no-escape" zones. Additionally, advances in hard target penetrating warheads are supplying mission flexibility by providing a conventional armament capability to defeat hardened targets traditionally reserved for nuclear weapons. In summary, paramount to every AFRL/RW technology decision is the answer to the question, "What does it do for the user?"