The Air Force has awarded Boeing $217.1 million in two contracts to continue production of Joint Direct Attack Munition tail kits and Small Diameter Bombs, according to a Jan. 7 company release. Under JDAM Lot 13, Boeing will produce more than 4,000 additional tail kits for the Air Force and Navy, delivering them in 2010 and 2011. Working on SDB Lot 5, the company will produce some 2,500 weapons and associated carriages for the Air Force, with deliveries in 2010. The services use JDAM tail kits to turn dumb bombs (500, 1,000, and 2,000 pounds) into smart weapons and have used JDAM and the SDB to provide “effective direct-attack options” in Iraq and Afghanistan, said Dan Jaspering, Boeing’s director of direct attack programs.
The Air Force wants to pump more than $12 billion over the next five years into its new affordable long-range missiles program and recently asked industry to push the flights of some of those munitions beyond 1,200 miles.