The Defense Department has notified Congress of a potential foreign military sale of the Boeing-built Small Diameter Bomb to the Netherlands. According to the Defense Security Cooperation Agency’s release, the Dutch are interested in procuring 603 SDB Increment I systems and associated equipment, training, and logistics support for an estimated cost of $44 million. The SDB I is a 250-pound-class, precision-guided munition that has been in operational with the US Air Force since October 2006. There are already three international customers, including Israel and Italy.
Air Force exercises in the Indo-Pacific may soon get even bigger and more robust, as lawmakers move to invest more than $620 million in such efforts. The bulk of that money, contained in a $150 billion reconciliation package currently making its way through Congress, is $532.6 million for earmarked for…