The U.S. DoD has awarded Boeing a contract for JDAM guidance kits within the scope of foreign military sales customers, including Turkiye.
The contract worth $600 million covers the JDAM GPS guidance kit for Mk-8x GPBs and its laser seeker-fitted version L-JDAM's integration, testing, and sustainment for multiple customers.
The customers include Turkiye, Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Israel.
The F-16 Block 70 Viper fighter and Viper modernisation kits sold to Turkiye, which the U.S. State Department approved, included 850 JDAM and L-JDAM kits. This contract shows progress towards the finalisation of the deal.
The approved sale with 40 new aircraft and 79 kits includes other U.S.-made munitions such as 952 AIM-120 C 8 AMRAAM missiles, 401 AIM-9X Block II Sidewinder missiles, 96 AGM-88E AARGM missiles, and 864 GBU-39 SDBs.
JDAM is a long-serving GPS guidance kit for Mk-81/82/83/84 GPBs and has been developed into new configurations such as L-JDAM with a laser seeker and JDAM-ER with deployable wings. Turkiye has developed counterparts of JDAM as HGK (of baseline JDAM), TEBER/LHGK (of L-JDAM), and KGK (of JDAM-ER) in service with F-16s and UCAVs.
