Boeing Will Build More GPS-Guided Smart Bombs With Extra Pentagon Funding
- Congress approved moving funds for Pakistan to bomb tail-kits
- Boeing would ramp up annual production to 45,000 from 36,500
AT SEA - MARCH 21: In this Navy handout photo, 2000 pound GBU-31 Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAM) are transported to the flight deck of the USS Harry S. Truman March 21, 2003 in the Mediterranean Sea. The bombs will be loaded onto fighter jets to support the war in Iraq.
Source: U.S. Navy via Getty ImagesBoeing Co. is getting a $153 million increase in Pentagon funding to boost production of its top smart bomb by 25 percent, with the money shifted from other purposes including counterterrorism aid to Pakistan.
The four congressional defense committees have given their required approval to provide the added $153 million to Boeing in a “reprogramming” of unused fiscal 2017 funding. Of that, $100 million will be taken from reimbursements to Pakistan, which President Donald Trump criticized in August for providing a “safe haven to agents of chaos, violence and terror.”