Boeing receives $106 million contract extension fromU.S. Air Force for munitions and carriages

2010-11-10 00:46:24 GMT+7 (ICT)

ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI (BNO NEWS) -- The Boeing Company on Tuesday announced that it received a $106 million contract extension from the U.S. Air Force for about 2,700 Small Diameter Bomb Increment I (SDB I) munitions and 380 BRU-61 carriages.

Boeing will deliver the munitions and carriages starting in January 2012. The production order is the seventh option exercised by the Air Force's Air Armament Center since 2003 and contains the most SDB I weapons ordered in a single lot. The seven lots comprises of 12,379 munitions and 2,059 carriages.

"Boeing and the U.S. Air Force have worked together to expand SDB I’s mission capability 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," said Debbie Rub, Boeing Military Aircraft vice president of Missiles and Unmanned Airborne Systems.

Under Lots 1 through 5, Boeing has delivered around 7,000 munitions and 1,200 carriages to the Air Force. Currently, Boeing is three months ahead in the production of the 2,613 munitions and 472 carriages in Lot 6.The first deliveries will be made between the end of November and December.

"The Air Force’s exercise of this Lot 7 contract option ensures SDB I’s long-term availability and continued cost-effectiveness," said Dan Jaspering, Boeing program director for Direct Attack Weapons. “We will continue our track record of delivering this effective, accurate and battle-proven weapon on time and on price with Lot 7 in 2012."

The SDB I is a 250-pound class, low-cost and low-collateral-damage precision strike weapon. It features a steel case and penetrating blast-fragmentation warhead. The weapon has a small size coupled with its four-place carriage that enables more weapons to be carried on each aircraft to improve mission effectiveness and reduce the number of sorties per missions.

A variant, the Focused Lethality Munition (FLM) provides a lower collateral damage effects with the use of a composite warhead. The munitions and the carriages are developed by Boeing Defense, Space & Security, the largest and most versatile manufacturer of military aircraft.

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