The French aerospace and defense company Safran has responded to the French Air and Space Forces’ statement that the current versions of the Hammer bomb no longer appear to be sufficiently suitable for future conflict scenarios due to their lack of range.
The AASM Hammer (Armement Air-Sol Modulaire – Highly Agile Modular Munition Extended Range), which is currently also being used very successfully in the defense of Ukraine (-> Latest news from the Ukraine war) is a precision-guided all-weather air-to-ground bomb.
In line with international trends, it is based on a standard free-fall bomb of the Mk82, Mk84 or BLU-109 type, which is equipped with a search and control head at the front and a stabilizing tail unit at the rear. The following steering options are available:
- INS (integrated inertial guidance system) + GPS
- INS + GPS + infrared
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INS + GPS + Laser
The rear of the Hammer offers a special feature: the pure free-fall variant can be equipped with a small rocket engine – known internally as a “REK” – to increase its range. Depending on the altitude and speed of the carrier aircraft, a range of over 70 kilometers can be achieved.
Ukraine: Armee setzt auf mobile Verteidigung und Gegenangriffe
But it is precisely these 70 kilometers that the Armée de l’air et de l’espace is no longer considered sufficient to keep its own aircraft outside the effective zone of modern enemy air defenses. Nevertheless France is expected to procure 1,200 of the guided bombs this year.
At the Salon International de l’Aéronautique et de l’Espace 2025 in Le Bourget, Safran therefore presented a new range kit: in future, the Hammer is to be equipped with a small jet engine at the rear. The completely redesigned rear has four air intakes that suggest a turbine. This should increase the target range to 150 to 200 kilometers.
It is currently not known whether this is purely a concept, whether the project is already under development or whether an order has already been placed.
Micro jet engines as an international trend
Militär Aktuell held an in-depth press conference at IDET 2025 in Brno with a spokesperson from the PBS Group. The Czech company is regarded as an international leader in the field of micro jet engines.
Although PBS is not currently taking on any new customers, demand is so high that the company is building another plant in Velká Bíteš (35 kilometers northwest of Brno) and is also setting up two new plants in the USA.
The focus is currently on recruiting personnel in order to increase production capacity. The engines, which weigh between 4 and 30 kilograms (depending on the type), are ideal for use in precision-guided long-range weapons.
