[citation needed] In the late 1950s through the early 1970s it was a standard aircraft weapon, carried by the F-100 Super Sabre, F-111 Ardvark, F-104 Starfighter, F-105 Thunderchief, and F-4 Phantom.

It was a component of the GBU-9/B version of the Rockwell electro-optically guided Homing Bomb System (HOBOS).

This weapon consisted of an M118 fitted with a KMU-390/B guidance kit with an image contrast seeker, strakes and cruciform tail fins to guide the bomb to its target.

This latter consisted of four fixed cruciform fins and four moveable canards to control the bomb's trajectory.

It was also fitted with an AIM-9B Sidewinder infra-red seeker and an AGM-45 Shrike nose cone during 1967 tests at the Naval Ordnance Test Station China Lake, possibly in an attempt to create an infra-red guided bomb.