F-16 Fighting Falcon News

September 28, 2000 (by Lieven Dewitte) - The U.S. Air Force recently awarded $45 million to The Boeing Company for engineering, manufacturing and development (EMD) of the 500-pound Mark-82 Joint Direct Attack Munition, or JDAM.
Boeing will conduct EMD on the F-16 and integrate the lightweight JDAM on the U.S. Air Force's B-2 and the U.S. Navy's F/A-18 aircraft. This smaller version of JDAM improves mission capability by allowing more JDAMs to be loaded on an aircraft and reduces damage around the intended target due to the smaller warhead.

JDAM is a low-cost guidance kit that converts existing unguided free-fall bombs into highly accurate guided weapons. It can be launched up to 15 miles from the target in virtually any weather condition. JDAM uses information received from an Inertial Navigation System/Global Positioning System to locate targets and guide the missile.

Boeing funded the initial development of the 500-pound JDAM kit using the same components found in the standard 2, 000- and 1, 000-pound JDAM configurations.

Flight tests were successfully carried out this year and in 1999. JDAM is a program selected by the U.S. Department of Defense to test methods for streamlining the acquisition process. By incorporating extensive use of commercial practices and off-the-shelf components, Boeing is able to produce a highly accurate and reliable JDAM at a low system cost.