Ramon Lopez/EGLIN AFB
The US Department of Defense has ordered Boeing to accelerate production of Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) kits for the US Air Force and navy because of a shortage created by its successful use in the air campaign over Yugoslavia, says Oscar Soler, JDAM programme manager.
The global positioning/inertial-navigation guidance kits convert free-fall 450kg (1,000lb) Mk83 and 900kg Mk84 gravity bombs, as well as 900kg BLU-109 tactical-munitions dispensers, into precision-guided weapons. Boeing expects to earn $2 billion providing the Pentagon with up to 74,000 kits, including 937 units in the first production lot, 2,202 in Lot 2 and 2,527 in Lot 3.
More than 500 of the 937 initial JDAM kits delivered have been dropped from Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit stealth bombers during the conflict, says Soler. Lot 2 deliveries began this month, rather than in July as planned, and Lot 3 units will begin to arrive in January.
Soler says the JDAM contract has been modified to accelerate Lot2/3 production, from 200 to 300 kits a month, on the line at St Charles, Missouri, where Boeing is also converting surplus AGM-86B cruise missiles with nuclear warheads into AGM-86C conventional air launched cruise missiles (CALCMs).
Lot 2 production was to run until May next year, but all 2,202 units will be delivered by the end of this year. Lot 3 deliveries, which begin in January, are to be completed by August next year.
Soler says the DoD will accelerate JDAM kit fabrication through the Clinton Administration's supplemental spending request for the air war in Yugoslavia. The cash will also replenish stocks of CALCMs and Raytheon BGM-109 Tomahawk Land Attack Missiles .
Soler says that "what if" exercises have considered increasing JDAM production to as many as 700 kits a month, a rate which was not planned until Lot 5/6.
He says that Boeing can quickly ramp up to full rate production. Foreign countries have "immense" interest in the JDAM, but Soler says all foreign military sales transactions are on hold until the US military's needs are satisfied.
Source: Flight International
