Boeing to produce 6,000 Small Diameter Bombs

Jan. 3 (UPI) -- Boeing has been awarded a $193 million contract by the U.S. Air Force to provide the GBU-39 Small Diameter Bomb Increment 1, or GBU-39 SDB-1, to several foreign nations.

The terms of the deal, announced Tuesday by the Department of Defense, enlist Boeing to provide production on Lots 12-14 with the modified contract to procure an additional 6,000 GBU-39 SDB-1s.

Under the terms of an indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract, the project's cost ceiling increases from $700 million to more than $893.6 million, the Pentagon said.

The SDB-I is preferred for American and foreign jet fighters when compared to the 2,000-pound Mark-84 general purpose bomb because a pilot can carry a pack of four SDBs in place of a single Mark-84.

The countries that will benefit from this deal include Saudi Arabia, Japan, Israel, the Netherlands, South Korea, and Singapore.

Work on the contract will occur in St. Louis, Mo., and is expected to be completed by December 2020.

The Air Force has obligated $99.7 million to Boeing at the time of award, which has been allocated from fiscal year 2015 and 2016 missile procurement funds and foreign military sales.