The Air Force awarded a new $307.5 million order to Boeing’s Defense, Space, and Security division on Thursday for an “undefinitized contract action” for an unspecified number of Joint Direct Attack Munition tail kits. The award, for production Lot 18 tail kits, is for work at Boeing’s St. Louis, Mo., facility and is slated for completion by October 2016. Around 30 percent of the award, a sole source acquisition contract action, includes unclassified foreign military sales to support JDAM procurement for the United Arab Emirates, Morocco, and Norway. Also included are Fiscal 2013 munitions procurement funds, as well as 2014 USAF and Navy munitions procurement funds—totaling around $150.7 million (the recipients of the remainder of the contract balance was not disclosed). Several US allies are looking to buttress their stocks of precision-guided weapons, and the Boeing company marked the production of the 250,000th tail kit assembly of the iconic weapon last August.
The 301st Fighter Wing in Fort Worth, Texas, became the first standalone Reserve unit in the Air Force to get its own F-35s, welcoming the first fighter Nov. 5.