Under this "umbrella contract" the US Air Force will be able to buy up to 36,500 guidance kits at a time. This is considered important, as airstrikes against Daesh have depleted armament stockpiles.
In December 2015, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh said, "We're expending munitions faster than we can replenish them…B-1s have dropped bombs in record numbers." he added, "We are able to manage inventories to sustain operations against ISIL at this time. We do need funding in place and the ability to forecast for production to be ready for the long fight… We continue to work on a longer term funding strategy which is absolutely required."
The Air Force said in a statement that the "Contractor will provide JDAM strap-on inertial guidance kits with the capability to receive guidance updates from Global Positioning Systems to increase weapon accuracy for conventional inventory bombs."
Boeing spokeswoman Katie Kelly said, "Boeing stands ready to adjust production quantities for any of our Weapons & Missile Systems programs to meet warfighting mission needs quickly and affordably."
