The Boeing-Lockheed Martin team vying for the Small Diameter Bomb Increment II program successfully completed its first flight test of its SDB II last month, according to a June 6 Boeing release. An F-15E Strike Eagle flying out of Eglin AFB, Fla., launched the team’s SDB II, which then opened its control fins and wings and followed its planned mission. Boeing and Lockheed hope to win the sole source system design and development phase of the program in late 2009 over SDB II rival Raytheon.
The $4.26 billion Small Business Innovation Research contracting program widely used by the Air Force went into hibernation as the government shut down Oct. 1, but unless lawmakers strike a deal on reforms, the program could reach an abrupt end.
