Boeing will supply the Air Force with nearly 2,700 additional Small Diameter Bombs and approximately 380 BRU-61 bomb carriages under a $106 million contract award for Lot 7 production announced Tuesday. The company says it will start delivering this equipment in January 2012. With this award, the Air Force has now ordered a total of 12,379 SDB Increment I munitions and 2,059 carriages from Boeing since 2003. So far, the company says it has delivered approximately 7,000 of these 250-pound-class bombs and 1,200 carriages. The Air Force has employed the SDB I in combat. Debbie Rub, vice president of Boeing’s Missiles and Unmanned Airborne Systems, noted in the company’s release how the SDB I has evolved “from a long-range standoff weapon into a weapon that also minimizes flight time to target—a capability that is ideal for close air support in today’s ever-changing battlefield.”
Anduril and General Atomics will develop their Collaborative Combat Aircraft for the Air Force, beating out Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman, the service announced on April 24. But any of the non-selected companies can compete to actually manufacture the eventual design, the Air Force said.