The Air Force awarded Boeing a contract price nearly $7.5 billion to construct more kits to convert bombs into guided weapons often known as Joint Direct Attack Munitions.
The corporate will provide JDAM tail kits and other supplies under the sole-source fixed-price, indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contract, the Pentagon said Friday. The corporate will work on the kits, in addition to spares, repairs, technical assistance and laser JDAM sensor kits, at its St Louis, Missouri, facility through the tip of February 2030.
The Air Force said that the variety of JDAM kits Boeing will provide under this contract will not be yet determined. Boeing referred inquiries to the Air Force.
A few of the JDAMs may even go to the Navy, which helps fund the contract, the Air Force said. Foreign customers may even receive a few of these JDAM supplies, with nearly $228.2 million of the contract coming from foreign military sales funds.
To create JDAMs, the Air Force or Navy attaches guidance tail kits to unguided “dumb” bombs that range from 500 kilos to 2,000 kilos. That tail kit features a navigational system and a GPS guidance control unit that permits the bomb to be steered from an aircraft toward its ground goal, even in rough weather. The per-unit cost of a JDAM kit ranges from about $25,000 to $84,000 apiece, depending on what number of units the Air Force buys in a 12 months.
The contract for more JDAM kits comes at a time when the U.S. military is anxious about its ability to stock enough munitions for its own arsenal, in addition to to support allies corresponding to Ukraine, Taiwan and Israel. Defense firms also don’t have enough staff or materials to surge the provision of some munitions, constricting the defense industrial base’s production capability.
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. CQ Brown told reporters in March that before the U.S. approves requests for weapons from even close allies, it takes a tough have a look at its own munitions stockpiles and considers how providing weapons will affect readiness.
The Air Force struggled to field enough munitions corresponding to JDAMs through the war against the Islamic State. The service dramatically spiked its purchase of JDAMs to 30,872 in 2019, 24,794 in 2020 and 17,300 in 2021, before bringing its purchases all the way down to the 1000’s within the years that followed.
Boeing previously received a $344.6 million contract modification from the Navy in September 2021 to offer as much as 24,000 precision laser guidance sets for the military’s laser JDAM program. The Air Force awarded Boeing one other contract, price $40.5 million, in January 2023 to offer JDAM wing kits.
Stephen Losey is the air warfare reporter for Defense News. He previously covered leadership and personnel issues at Air Force Times, and the Pentagon, special operations and air warfare at Military.com. He has traveled to the Middle East to cover U.S. Air Force operations.