Boeing’s GBU-39 Small Diameter Bomb Gets Boost

Nov 1/10: Boeing in St. Louis, MO receives a $106.4 million contract modification, exercising the Production Lot 7 (FY 2011) option for GBU-39 small diameter bombs, carriages, and technical support. At this time, the entire amount has been committed by the AAC/EBMK at Eglin Air Force Base, FL (FA8672-11-C-0034). Boeing’s Nov 9/10 release states that Lot 7 covers 2,700 GBU-39s and 280 GBU-61 carriages. Production Lots 1-5 delivered approximately 7,000 bombs and 1,200 carriages to the USAF, and Lot 6 production of 2,613 bombs and 472 carriages is more than 3 months ahead of schedule.

Unlike Raytheon’s GBU-53 SDB-II, Boeing’s SDB-I isn’t designed to attack moving targets. Instead, this GPS-guided weapon is more like the Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM), with a number of key design modifications. This specially shaped 250-pound bomb’s thin and pointed shape gives it extra punch against buildings and hardened targets, even though its warhead is only 50 pounds of explosive. Its pop-out glide wings and guidance set give it extended range, depending on the launching aircraft’s speed and altitude. The bombs are carried on a smart BRU-61/A 4-rack carriage, or in the internal weapon bay of planes like the F-22A Raptor. Either way, the SDB-I’s weight and compact design let aircraft carry far more smart bombs than they could otherwise.

Contracts & Events

November 11/19: All Up Rounds And Warhead Shipping Containers Boeing won a $22.5 million contract for Laser Small Diameter Bomb all up rounds and warhead shipping containers. The deal provides 522 all up rounds and 131 warhead shipping containers for use by US Special Operations Detachment 1. The GBU-39 is a 250 pounds precision-guides glide bomb that is intended to provide aircraft with the ability to carry a higher number of more accurate bombs. It uses an advanced anti-jam GPS-aided inertial navigation system to attack fixed or stationary targets, and carries a multipurpose penetrating blast-and-fragmentation warhead with a programmable fuze. Boeing will perform work at St. Louis, Missouri, and is expected to be complete by February 8, 2021.

January 5/18: Contract-FMS Boeing has been awarded a $193 million US Air Force contract by the Department of Defense (DoD), to provide GBU-39 Small Diameter Bomb Increment 1 (SBD-1) to several foreign partner nations. Saudi Arabia, Japan, Israel, the Netherlands, South Korea, and Singapore will all benefit from the deal, and 6,000 SDB 1 all-up-rounds are being produced under the modification to the original Lots 12-14 production order. Production will take place at St. Louis, Mo., and deliveries will be completed by December 2020.

April 8/16: Australia has been cleared to purchase up to 2,950 GBU-39 Small Diameter Bombs by the US State Department. The $386 million sale will include the provision of up to 50 Guided Test Vehicles (GTV) with GBU-39 (T-1)/B (Inert Fuze) as well as containers, weapons system support equipment, support and test equipment, site survey, transportation, repair and return warranties, spare and repair parts, publications and technical data, maintenance, personnel training, and training equipment. Included additionally are US Government and contractor representative engineering, logistics, and technical support services, and other related elements of logistics support.

November 12/15: Boeing has been awarded an Air Force contract modification covering Foreign Military Sales production of GBU-39 Small Diameter Bombs. The $130.1 million modification covers deliveries of the weapons to foreign partners, with the contract modification running to 2019. Israel and Italy operate the munition outside of the United States. First initial production of the SDBI began in 2005, after a controversial decision to award Boeing a production order.