The partnership of Boeing and Lockheed Martin will have to fend off several other major defense companies for the contract to build the next crop of Small Diameter Bombs. According to Dow Jones newswire, Raytheon and, perhaps, General Dynamics and Northrop Grumman are keen to enter the nearly $2 billion competition. A Raytheon official said that the addition of a moving target requirement, with its new suite of antennas and communications equipment, and the removal of the need for the SDB to pierce a building makes the phase II version “a potentially completely different weapons system.” The changes make it much more appealing to a wider variety of contractors.
The U.S. military is carrying out intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance missions along the southern border and off the coast of Mexico using U.S. Air Force RC-135 Rivet Joint and U.S. Navy P-8 Poseidon aircraft as part of the Pentagon’s effort to secure the southern border at the direction of President…