The Defense Department has notified Congress of a potential foreign military sale of the Boeing-built Small Diameter Bomb to the Netherlands. According to the Defense Security Cooperation Agency’s release, the Dutch are interested in procuring 603 SDB Increment I systems and associated equipment, training, and logistics support for an estimated cost of $44 million. The SDB I is a 250-pound-class, precision-guided munition that has been in operational with the US Air Force since October 2006. There are already three international customers, including Israel and Italy.
A new report from the Government Accountability Office calls for the Pentagon’s Chief Technology Officer to have budget certification authority over the military services’ research and development accounts—a move the services say would add a burdensome and unnecessary layer of bureaucracy.
