Kaman’s Aerospace segment has secured a contract for the supply of additional joint programmable fuzes (JPF) to the US Air Force (USAF).
Also referred to as Option 10, the newly-awarded base contract has an estimated value of $70m and also features two follow-on options, which, if exercised, will raise the contract’s total value and extend performance period through the middle of 2017.
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Kaman chairman, president and CEO Neal Keating said the contract award reaffirms the critical capability provided by JPF to the US military forces.
”The JPF is the most functional and reliable bomb fuze in the US military’s arsenal. We are pleased to solidify the future of our largest single programme," Keating said.
Claimed to be the USAF’s current bomb fuze of choice, JPF is an electro-mechanical bomb safing and arming device designed to allow the settings of a weapon to be programmed in flight.
The fuze is currently used with an array of weapons, including general purpose bombs and guided bombs that use joint direct attack munitions (JDAM), or Paveway kits. It is also on several USAF aircraft, such as the F-15 Silent Eagle, F-16 Fighting Falcon, F-22 Raptor, A-10 Thunderbolt, B-1 Lancer, B-2 Spirit, B-52 Stratofortress and the MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV).
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By GlobalDataOther international aircraft using the fuze, which is manufactured at Kaman’s facilities in Florida and Connecticut, US, include the Mirage 3 and JAS 39 Gripen multi-role fighter aircraft.
Contract deliveries are expected to commence in the second half of 2014.
Besides serving as the JPF’s sole provider to the USAF since 2002, Kaman also provides the bomb to 23 other countries worldwide.
Image: A USAF’s B-2 bomber drops a joint programmable fuze (pictured right)-equipped joint direct attack munition. Photo: courtesy of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.
