The Air Force intends to award a sole-source contract to Raytheon [RTN] for Small Diameter Bomb II (SDB II) integration onto the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet fighter jet, according to a notice posted on Federal Business Opportunities (FBO).

The contract would be a five-year, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity (ID/IQ) deal that the service anticipates awarding by April. Raytheon is the prime contractor for SDB II while Boeing [BA] develops the F/A-18E/F. Integration would need to be completed by fiscal year 2019, according to the Air Force.

Artist's illustration of Raytheon's Small Diameter Bomb II. Photo: Raytheon.
Artist’s illustration of Raytheon’s Small Diameter Bomb II. Photo: Raytheon.

The primary requirement of integration will be to provide SDB II specific test assets like ejection test vehicle, instrumented measurement vehicle, jettison test vehicle, separation test vehicle, guided test vehicle, weapon system simulators and wind tunnel models. Additional requirements include, but are not limited to, wind tunnel testing support and analysis of data, separation flight test support, weapon rate capture analysis, ground and flight test integration, mission planning and system performance specification updates.

Raytheon said in July it, along with the Air Force and Navy, began SDB II integration activities on the F-35, the F/A-18E/F and F-16. The company said preliminary SDB II fit checks and pit testing had been completed on the F-35, supporting the Joint strike Fighter’s (JSF) ability to carry eight SDB IIs internally.

Raytheon and the Air Force earlier this year completed a series of SDB II flight tests, which the company said positioned the program to move from the engineering and manufacturing development (EMD) phase to low-rate initial production (LRIP) (Defense Daily, June 27). This was also thought to move the program closer to a potential Milestone C decision in the fourth quarter of 2014, but Air Force spokesman Ed Gulick said Thursday SDB II is on track to achieve Milestone C by March.

Raytheon spokeswoman Ashley Mehl said SDB II is an “event-based program which will proceed as performance is demonstrated and events are completed.” Mehl said Raytheon is making good progress toward the program’s system verification review (SVR), which she said is a predecessor to Milestone C.

Raytheon, Mehl said, has successfully completed all requisite guided test vehicle (GTV) flights required for SVR with the two flights remaining being shots with live warheads scheduled for September. Raytheon’s qualification tests are approximately 80 percent complete and are still continuing, she added.

Raytheon said SDB II can engage fixed, relocatable or moving targets at any time of day and in adverse weather conditions. The company said SDB II can strike targets from a range of more than 40 nautical miles with a dynamic warhead that can destroy both soft and armored targets while keeping collateral damage to a minimum through a small explosive footprint. SDB II offers warfighters the flexibility to change targets through a secure datalink that passes in-flight updates to the weapon, according to Raytheon.