Air Force nearly doubles value
of Boeing JDAM smart
munitions contract; grows
to $3.2 billion
June 1, 2016
HILL AIR FORCE BASE, Utah, 1 June 2016. Bomb designers at
the Boeing Co. will continue providing satellite guidance systems
to convert gravity bombs intosmart munitions under terms of a
program restructuring that increases Boeing's Joint Direct Attack
Munition (JDAM) work to $3.2 billion.
Officials of the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center at Hill
Air Force Base, Utah, added $1.5 billion Monday to a contract
first awarded in 2014 to the Boeing Defense, Space & Security
segment in St. Louis for JDAM tailkits.
JDAM describes a guidance kit that converts unguided bombs
into all-weather precision-guided munitions. JDAM tailkits add
an integrated inertial guidance system coupled to a Global
Positioning System (GPS) receiver to give bombs a published
range of as far as 15 nautical miles.
JDAM-equipped bombs range from 500 to 2,000 pounds by
adding a tail section with aerodynamic control surfaces, a
body kit, and a combined inertial guidance system and GPS
guidance control unit.
The Air Force nearly doubled the value of the Boeing JDAM contract
due to warfighter demand and to replenish depleted inventories.
The Air Force on Monday increased the value of Boeing's JDAM
tailkit contract from $1.7 billion to $3.2 billion.
In addition to GPS and inertial guidance, some JDAM-equipped
munitions also use laser guidance. The performance of
laser-guided smart munitions sometimes can be hindered by bad
weather, smoke, dust, and other obscurants.
Laser-guidance kits sometimes are added to the nose of
JDAM-equipped bombs for precision terminal guidance.
Military aircraft that can carry JDAM include the B-1B supersonic
bomber; the B-2A stealth bomber; B-52H bomber; F-15E
fighter-bomber; F-16C jet fighter, the F/A-18 fighter-bomber;
-22 fighter; F-35 joint strike fighter; A-4 light-attack bomber;
AV-8B jump jet; A-10 close air support jet; A-29 Super Tucano;
Mitsubishi F-2; Panavia Tornado; Mirage F-1; and Saab JAS 39 Gripen.
The MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) also can carry the JDAM.
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Brought To You
On this contract modification Boeing will do the work in St. Louis and should
be finished by September 2020. For more information contact Boeing
Defense, Space & Security online at www.boeing.com/defense, or the
Air Force Life Cycle Management Center at www.wpafb.af.mil/aflcmc.
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