Boeing has scored the first international sale of the Laser JDAM, signing a commercial contract with the German government for an undisclosed amount of the munitions, the company announced yesterday. The work will include support for integrating the modified 500-pound bombs on Tornado strike aircraft. Delivery is expected to begin in mid-2009, with options for additional units in 2009, Boeing said. Laser JDAM is a GPS-guidance-aided joint direct attack munition with a laser kit added so that the bomb can be used to attack both stationary and fast moving targets. Boeing said it expects additional orders in the near future. The US Air Force took delivery if its first Laser JDAMs earlier this year to address one of pressing warfighter needs in Southwest Asia: countering fleeting targets with precision.
The Air Force will begin its 71st annual Operation Christmas Drop on Dec. 4. The weeklong exercise is a yearly tradition that delivers supplies such as food, fishing equipment, school books, and clothes to remote islands in the Pacific. It is the longest-running Department of Defense humanitarian mission.