Boeing’s BSU-111/B Payload Delivery Unit is a wing-and-turbojet engine kit that converts a 500-pound Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) into a long-range JDAM (JDAM LR) dubbed the GBU-75. The result is a gravity bomb with the reach of a cruise missile.

Boeing said it has spent nearly $100 million of its own money on the program.

“Scaling production of the GBU-75 will provide the fleet with an affordable, sustainable solution designed to eliminate long-range land and sea-based threats to U.S. and international forces,” said Bob Ciesla, vice president of Boeing Precision Engagement Systems.

The BSU-111/B wing-and-engine kit is the latest modification to the JDAM family, which has previously seen the gravity bomb receive a tail kit that steered it roughly 15 nautical miles and a wing kit that further stretched that distance to 40.

The Kratos-designed TDI-J85 engine pushes that past 300.

The JDAM LR’s capabilities go beyond land strikes. The QuickStrike Long Range mining variant pairs it with a bomb carrying a ship-tracking sensor. Boeing has shown concepts loading large numbers onto Air Force bombers, though no Air Force buy has been announced.

The Air Force Life Cycle Management Center at Hill Air Force Base, Utah, buys JDAM for both the Air Force and U.S. Navy. The first GBU-75s are bound for the Navy.

The Navy demonstrated the weapon back in April, when Super Hornets released two JDAM LRs over the Point Mugu Sea Range off California.

The April 1 round separated cleanly, fired up its engine and flew 34 minutes before landing within meters of its target. The April 3 round added altitude changes and maneuvering. Each covered roughly 200 nautical miles.

When announcing those tests in April, Capt. Sarah Abbott, the Navy’s Precision Strike Weapons program manager, emphasized the need to give the fleet’s JDAMs greater standoff range.

“As Naval Air Forces in theater continue to rely heavily on JDAM systems, the program recognizes a critical need to provide the fleet with greater standoff range,” she said. “This new capability allows pilots to engage targets from significantly safer distances, maintaining a tactical advantage in contested environments.”

Reusing existing infrastructure is a key aspect of the program’s appeal.

Navy budget documents describe JDAM LR as a modification to the baseline program, built on the existing production line and guidance hardware. Any jet that can drop a conventional JDAM can carry the new variant without modification, according to Boeing’s release.

The award, which had not appeared in the Pentagon’s daily contract announcements as of Aug. 5, is an undefinitized action, meaning Boeing began work before the two sides agreed on a price. The Government Accountability Office has long called these contracts risky because contractors are reimbursed for allowable costs, regardless.

Boeing’s release did not say how many GBU-75s the contract buys, how much they cost or when deliveries begin.

“The current industrial base has demonstrated significant challenges, including production delays, quality control issues, and critical obsolescence (i.e., diminishing manufacturing sources and material shortages) across key engine components,” warned the Air Force’s Request for Information. The deadline is Aug. 28.

“The government will pursue a strategic competition requiring industry to innovate manufacturing and guarantee supply chain resiliency,” the RFI said.

The initiative comes as the Air Force struggles with its jet engines.

For example, F-35 fighter deliveries and upgrades have been delayed by engine issues, with a Government Accountability Office report noting last year that “the engine contractor is still not delivering engines to contract specifications after 20 years of production.”

Meanwhile, B-52 modernization has been stalled in part by engine issues that have raised costs by $3 billion and delayed initial operational capability by 15 months, according to GAO.

In turn, the Air Force is now embarking on a multiyear fighter engine procurement project that envisions more than 180 engines per year by 2034. The RFI specifically cites engines for the F-15EX and F-16.

The RFI promises “five foundational pillars designed to drive a paradigm shift in engine procurement and sustainment,” as the government shifts from “legacy procurement toward incentivizing industry-led technological evolution and capacity expansion.” These include “holding vendors accountable” for delivering new engines that are more capable, reliable and cheaper.

The Air Force will focus “on the total lifecycle cost of the engine, not just the initial purchase price.”

Contractors are also responsible for ensuring reliable supply chains.

“We will implement an acquisition strategy that prioritizes ease of maintenance and establishes a resilient, sustainable supply chain from day one,” the Air Force said. “This effort is designed to solve key fleet-level issues by requiring a newer engine with improved supportability.”

“The result is a streamlined logistics footprint that reduces downtime, lowers the burden on our maintainers, and ensures the continuous flow of parts and support to maximize flightline readiness.”

Ultimately, the question is whether the U.S. defense industrial base can deliver. The Air Force intends to “enforce stringent producibility requirements.”

“We will select a partner capable of scaling production to meet surge requirements, guaranteeing a steady and uninterrupted supply of engines for USAF/FMS [Foreign Military Sales] aircraft (e.g. F-15EX and F-16) programs,” the RFI reads.

Companies responding to the RFI are asked to provide a variety of details, such as a timeline for developing and manufacturing an engine. They should also specify “at what minimum volume your supply chain can justify private capital investments (such as facility expansion, tooling modernization, or advanced automation) and how those investments will structurally lower your long-term unit costs.”

With nations competing to obtain raw materials — and China restricting sales of rare earths — the Air Force wants to be certain manufacturers can find the raw materials they need.

“From your company’s market perspective, what are the primary raw material constraints (e.g., specialized titanium/nickel alloys) or manufacturing process bottlenecks (e.g., advanced casting or forging capacity) that pose the highest risk to scaling up fighter engine production?” the RFI asks.

Lorenzo Mariani, Leonardo’s CEO and General Manager, said: “The introduction of the M-346F in Indonesia provides clear evidence not only of the aircraft system’s inherent quality, but also of the country’s continued and yet growing trust in our capabilities across domains.”

Leonardo said the sale “includes the localization of a range of support, maintenance, overhaul and training capabilities, as well as human capital development.”

The Italian-built M-346 is well known as an advanced jet trainer, but the F variant is a dedicated, multirole, light fighter. It has an active electronically scanned array radar, Link 16 data link, seven hardpoints for carrying weapons, aerial refueling capability and electronic countermeasures system.

The first M-346s should be handed over to Jakarta in 2030. This will make Indonesia the 23rd operator of the M-346, but the first Asian customer of the newest Block 20 variant.

“Just eight months after the first order, strong and rapid global demand for the latest version of the aircraft clearly demonstrates it is meeting customer requirements,” reads a Leonardo statement. The firm said the M-346 has logged 170,000+ flight hours to date.

Indonesia is currently inducting Dassault’s Rafale fighter, but the air force maintains a hotchpotch fleet that includes the American F-16, Russian Su-27/Su-30 and Korean T-50i.

Jakarta invested in the Korean KF-21’s development, and it has also professed devotion to the Turkish Kaan. However, neither has resulted in production contracts yet. Indonesia’s defense minister has also expressed a desire for the Chinese J-10.

If all these aspirations came true, Indonesia would end up operating perhaps the world’s most complicated and varied fleet of combat aircraft.

“The Indonesian Armed Forces have been facing existing challenges related to interoperability,” Alban Sciascia, director of consultancy firm PT Semar Sentinel Indonesia, told Defense News. “It’s no secret that Indonesia has been focusing on procuring different equipment from different countries, as part of its diversification strategy, and that its joint operations concept is limited because of the relative inability to get all this equipment interoperating on the battlefield.”

Meanwhile, Leonardo, PT ESystem Solutions and the Indonesian Ministry of Defense also signed a letter of intent on July 21 for the prospective procurement of Leonardo AW149 medium helicopters for the Indonesian Navy.

“If followed by a contract, this could lead to the supply of AW149 helicopters for search and rescue and disaster relief, for both land-based and embarked operations,” Leonardo said in a statement.

The navy currently operates eleven Airbus AS565 Panther helicopters, but as guardian of the world’s largest archipelagic waters, it has a requirement for more shipboard helicopters.

The country’s security council, KYSEA, gave its initial approval earlier this year and approved the procurement contracts on Thursday, Nikos Dendias told journalists.

Greece wants to build a multi-layer anti-ballistic, anti-aircraft and anti-drone system, called “Achilles Shield,” with Israeli radars and missiles from Rafael and IAI defense companies forming the core of the system.

“It will be ready and fully operational within 35 months, starting from today,” said Nikos Dendias, adding that companies in Greece will produce at least 25% of the system.

Greece, which currently uses U.S. Patriot and old Russian S-300 systems to protect its airspace, plans to spend about €28 billion by 2036 to modernize its armed forces.

This includes buying up to 40 new F-35 fighter jets from the United States and frigates from France and Italy.

Dendias said that KYSEA had also approved the purchase of three C-390 military transport aircraft, 10 British-built VICTA mini-submarines for special operations, U.S. V-BAT unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and Heron UAVs from Israel.

Greece spends nearly 3.5% of its gross domestic product on defense, a higher proportion than many fellow NATO countries, due to its long-standing dispute with Turkey.

With strong economic and diplomatic ties, Greece and Israel operate an air training centre on Greek territory, hold joint military annual drills and cooperate on anti-drone systems and cybersecurity.

Last year, Athens bought 36 Israeli-made rocket artillery systems for about €650 million.

The U.K.’s biggest defense company showcased a model of its new jet, Brontanax, derived from the ancient Greek words for thunder and king, at the Farnborough Airshow. It is about the size of a Hawk trainer and would be ready to start flight testing next year, BAE said.

As the global threat level rises and western nations re-arm, defense chiefs say the lesson from the Ukraine war is clear: nations need to control the skies to avoid Ukrainian-style attritional trench warfare and that requires air forces to bulk up.

BAE enters an increasingly crowded market for so-called Collaborative Combat Aircraft, with Airbus, Boeing, Anduril and General Atomics among a growing number of companies competing for business at Farnborough in a sector expected to expand rapidly.

Often described as “loyal wingmen,” CCAs are designed to fly alongside piloted aircraft and are expected to cost roughly a third as much as a traditional fighter jet.

Crowded marketplace

Britain’s new Defence Secretary Wes Streeting, who was appointed on Monday, said it was a “groundbreaking moment.”

“We will adopt this as our operational concept demonstrator, and we’re going to get it in the air in 2027,” he said at the airshow.

BAE has invested hundreds of millions of pounds in its CCA, pushing ahead without the government co-investment which usually underpins new platforms.

“We’ve put our money where our mouth is,” CEO Charles Woodburn told Reuters.

“We could see where the market was going,” he added, saying he hopes to secure a U.K. order, and that other countries in Europe and the Middle East could follow, with some already showing an interest.

BAE has developed Brontanax alongside the Royal Air Force, in a project dating back to 2022, and already has a fully assembled aircraft at its Warton facility in northwest England. It could enter service by 2030, BAE said.

That timeline compares to Boeing’s MQ-28 Ghost Bat, on display at Farnborough, which has already started flight testing, and could be flying for Australia by 2028.

BAE said its CCA offered more stealth than rivals and it was aiming for it to have 70% to 80% of the capabilities of a fighter jet and to come in at under 25% of the cost, which could give it a price tag of around $25 million.

Its open architecture and modular design will allow software upgrades and changes to easily be made, with BAE looking at non-military suppliers to help with the build.

Britain said in its defense investment plan earlier in July that it would spend an initial £300 million ($401 million) to launch a sovereign CCA program it has named Storm Fighter.

The move coincides with the Farnborough Airshow, the aerospace and defense industry’s premier gathering, with wars in Ukraine and the Middle East driving demand for tools from combat drones and interceptor missiles to AI-enabled military software.

The airshow coincides with new Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s first days in office. He named John Healey, who favors hiking the UK defense budget, as finance minister, while giving Health Minister Wes Streeting the defense brief.

The appointments boosted British defense and aerospace stocks on Tuesday, as markets bet companies would benefit from the new government’s willingness to make Britain more war-ready.

“I’m looking forward to working with him in his new capacity,” Rolls-Royce CEO Tufan Erginbilgic told reporters at the show on Tuesday, referring to Healey. “He understands Rolls-Royce and our agenda and how much we contribute to the country.”

The new government’s first announcement with foreign partners came on the Global Combat Air Programme, the stealth fighter being jointly developed by Britain, Italy and Japan. Canada joined as an observer, marking the first expansion beyond the founding members.

BAE Systems, Boeing and Saab also signed a deal to advance a partnership to offer Britain a new fast-jet pilot training aircraft based on Boeing’s T-7 system, as it looks for a replacement for the aging Hawk fleet.

Defense sector signal

Healey had previously spent months lobbying the former prime minister to lay out a pathway to spend 3% of GDP on defense by 2030, rather than the 2.68% that the government eventually budgeted for.

“As Defense Secretary, John Healey championed British business, recognizing the contribution that the defense sector makes to growth and national security,” BAE Systems CEO Charles Woodburn said.

Canada is becoming an increasingly important defense partner for European nations as it looks to diversify its defense spending away from the United States and forge closer ties on the continent.

There will be no financial commitment involved in its observer status, but Canada could join the program more formally in future, sharing the billion-dollar development bill and potentially ordering the jets.

Defense companies made up half of a record 1,600 exhibitors at this year’s show, highlighting a shift from the usual dominance of commercial aviation and reflecting how conflicts have reshaped spending priorities.

Boeing was awarded a $3.9 billion contract in 2018 to build the aircraft, though costs have since ballooned to more than $5 billion. The aircraft are intended to replace the current Air Force One planes, which entered service in 1990.

“We’re on track for 2028,” Steve Parker, CEO of Defense, Space & Security, told reporters ahead of the Farnborough Airshow in the UK, adding that he expected the first aircraft to begin testing next year.

“I do expect to see some cost growth there as we come through and we finish off the wiring and the structures, as well as finishing up our own certifications.”

In May 2025, the United States accepted a luxury Boeing 747 from Qatar for use as a temporary presidential aircraft. The jet has since entered service as a bridge aircraft. Security concerns led President Donald Trump to forgo flying the Qatari jet home from Turkey, opting instead to return aboard an older Air Force One.

The Air Force One program involves converting two Boeing 747-8 aircraft into highly specialized jets equipped with advanced communications and defensive systems. Even with a 2028 delivery, the program would be running four years behind schedule.

The system, called Hypnosis, consists of an array of mobile “stations” around a defended area, working in unison to disrupt the command-and-control signals of incoming threats, according to the manufacturer.

The company said the technology is the product of IAI’s experience in navigation warfare, of NAVWAR.

The soft-kill weapon is meant as a method for taking out large numbers of drones at once, in situations where hard-kill — or kinetic — intercepts would be tricky to execute because of the number of airborne objects.

The unveiling comes amid a resurgence of military confrontation between the United States and Iran and heightened tension across the Middle East as a result of it, as well as an intensifying exchange of missile and drone strikes between Russia and Ukraine.

Defense companies around the world have been working on technology enabling swarms of drones to attack targets with an inherent logic of their own.

Similarly, companies are also chasing defensive offerings for such scenarios.

Swarms are difficult to defend against because they can saturate and overwhelm traditional air defense networks, increasing the chances of at least one warhead making it through.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Macron agreed on a roadmap between their two countries that also includes the acquisition of a first batch of SAMP/T NG air-defense batteries, complementing systems and their missiles to be delivered in coming weeks, Macron said. France will also provide radar systems and additional missiles, the president said.

The countries further approved licensing agreements for production in Ukraine of the AASM glide-bomb kit, the Aster 30 air-defense interceptor that arms the SAMP/T system as well as the SCALP/Storm Shadow air-launched cruise missile, Macron said.

Ukraine has suffered a shortage of interceptors to defeat ballistic threats, leaving the country with a gap in its air defenses as Russia has stepped up ballistic-missile attacks. United States President Donald Trump said earlier this month Ukraine would be allowed to manufacture its own interceptors for the Patriot air-defense system, though setting up local production could take years.

“Ukraine has immediate needs, particularly in the anti-ballistic area,” Macron said. He said the bilateral agreement is part of that, in addition to an initiative by Zelenskyy to create a coalition “that will accelerate Ukraine’s anti-ballistic defense in a very concrete way.”

Nine countries including France, the United Kingdom, Germany and Norway joined Ukraine in a coalition that will develop an anti-ballistic air-defense system, according to a joint statement. The system, called Freyja, will be centered on an interceptor from Ukrainian defense firm Fire Point.

Ukraine is also seeking to strengthen its air force and compensate for the loss of Soviet-era aircraft, agreeing in May to buy 20 new Gripen fighter jets, and with Sweden planning to donate 16 older models next year. The country has previously received F-16 fighter jets, which are being used primarily in an air defense role to shoot down Russian cruise missiles and Shahed attack drones.

The first Rafale jets are expected to fly in Ukrainian skies as early as 2028 or 2029, and training of Ukrainian pilots will start in coming months, Macron said.

Ukraine in November signed a letter of intent to buy up to 100 Rafale jets manufactured by Dassault Aviation. That followed a similar letter of intent in October between Ukraine and Sweden for the export of up to 150 Gripen jets, produced by Saab.

The remaining year of the Hydis program will focus on advancing critical technologies to at least Technology Readiness Level 3, Europe’s Organisation for Joint Armament Co-Operation said in a separate statement on Friday. That level corresponds to experimental proof of concept.

Hydis is one of two European projects to develop a counter against hypersonic threats, competing with the Hydef program led by Germany’s Diehl Defence and coordinated by Spain’s SMS Sistemas de Misiles de España. The European Defence Fund plans to allocate €100 million ($114 million) for an endo-atmospheric interceptor as part of its 2026 work program, with only one of the proposals to be funded.

Completion of the final concept review is “a significant step forward in the development of a future European capability to counter hypersonic threats,” OCCAR said. The organization, which manages the program on behalf of France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands, said the four countries validated “the most promising interceptor concept proposed by the Hydis industrial consortium.”

The interceptor will be designed to defeat threats including hypersonic glide vehicles, hypersonic cruise missiles and maneuvering ballistic missiles, and the concept was assessed against threat models developed by Italy’s research organization Centro Italiano di Ricerca Aerospaziale, France’s Onera and Dutch technology institute TNO.

The final concept review focused specifically on the terminal phase of interception by the kill vehicle, according to OCCAR, which said the program enters the next phase with a “clear path” toward technology maturation.

Avio worked on the architecture of the solid rocket motor propulsion, ArianeGroup and MBDA’s Roxel on the final interceptor stage control mechanism, and Lynred on the terminal infra-red sensor, according to MBDA, with the missile maker handling the integration into a coherent concept.

Thales provided performance data for naval and ground-sensor suite options, while GKN Fokker worked on integration of the ammunition into the MK41 naval launcher, MBDA said.

“This new milestone demonstrates the consortium’s full expertise in the fields of hypersonic and ballistic threats, backed by in-depth knowledge of air defense systems.” MBDA said in its statement on Friday.

The EDF has provided €80 million in funding for the three-year Hydis program, with the four partner countries jointly providing around €60 million. The largest share of EDF funds for Hydis has gone to MBDA, with more than €60 million allocated across seven MBDA entities in the program.

Meanwhile, Hydef has received €100 million from the EDF, and another €10 million from participating countries Belgium, Germany, Norway, Poland and Spain. Diehl is the biggest beneficiary of the European funding for Hydef, accounting for €34.7 million.

Hydef originally won the EDF competition to develop a hypersonic interceptor in 2022, with the European Commission funding Hydis as a second effort after objections from France and MBDA, which had already been working on hypersonic technology for years. MBDA presented its counter-hypersonic interceptor concept Aquila at the Paris Air Show in 2023.

Both programs are linked to the broader European project Twister to detect, track and counter hypersonic threats with space-based early warning and endo-atmospheric interceptors.