Boeing

The Boeing Company has received the Flight International Aerospace Industry Award 2000 for Military Aviation in recognition of achievements by the Joint Direct Attack Munition program.

The seventh annual Aerospace Industry Awards are sponsored by Flight International magazine and were presented at Asian Aerospace 2000, Asia's premier aerospace and defense technology exhibition and airshow.

"This award is the result of outstanding work accomplished by the entire JDAM team in responding to customer needs during Operation Allied Force," said Carl Avila, Boeing JDAM program manager. "Our team, which includes our customers and our suppliers, demonstrated the ability to ramp up production quickly and efficiently."

The JDAMs were employed during Operation Allied Force and demonstrated all-weather accuracy and excellent reliability. Boeing more than doubled the JDAM production rate during the conflict to meet the needs of allied forces. Under contract for about 8,000 of the 87,000 JDAM kits for the U.S. government, the Boeing team expects to complete more than 1,000 kits per month during full-rate production.

The award recognizes achievements and innovations relating to the design, manufacture and use of all types of military aircraft, including helicopters and transport aircraft, as well as complete weapon systems.

JDAM is a low-cost guidance kit that converts existing, unguided, free-fall bombs into accurately guided "smart" weapons. The JDAM adds a new tail section to existing inventories of Mk-83 and BLU-110 1,000 pound (450 kg) bombs, and the Mk-84 and BLU-109 2,000 pound (900 kg) bombs. The tail section contains the Inertial Navigation System/Global Positioning System guidance, mission computer and fin actuators for weapon control.

The JDAM team has developed three JDAM versions and integrated JDAM on five aircraft: the B-1, B-2, B-52, F/A-18, and F-16. JDAM has recorded an unprecedented 95 percent system reliability during development testing and has achieved better than required accuracy.

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