The aerospace giant Boeing Co. has been awarded a $250 million indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for Joint Direct Attack Munitions.
Under the contract, announced Monday by the U.S. Department of Defense, the Boeing Defense Space and Security company, based in St. Louis, will provide Joint Direct Attack Munition and Laser Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM/LJDAM) technical services, aircraft integration, and sustainment.
This contract provides for JDAM/LJDAM-specific activities including, but not limited to, technical services, aircraft integration, and sustainment. Work will be performed in St. Louis, and is expected to be complete by March 2029.
According to the Department of Defense, note, this contract involves sales to the U.S. government (52 percent); and foreign military sales (48 percent) to various countries.
The JDAM is a low-cost guidance kit that converts existing unguided free-fall bombs into accurately guided “smart” weapons. The JDAM kit consists of a new tail section that contains an inertial navigation system/global positioning system (INS/GPS) and body strakes for additional stability and lift. Bombs can be accurately delivered in any weather conditions and be launched at a great distance from the target, and the navigation system can be relied on to update the weapon all the way to impact.
The U.S. Air Force, U.S. Navy and the militaries of more than 26 additional countries employ JDAM. Its first operational use was during Operation Allied Force in the Balkans in 1999. JDAM has been used extensively in Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) and Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) and most recently in NATO’s Operation Unified Protector in Libya.