Kratos‘ [KTOS] Michigan-based Technical Directions, Inc. (TDI) business unit within the company’s unmanned systems division said that it has agreed with Boeing [BA] to develop and field the TDI-J85 turbine engine for the Powered Joint Direct Attack Munition (P-JDAM).

“Boeing’s Powered JDAM combines a 500-pound ordnance, the conventional JDAM guidance kit, with a wing kit and a Kratos TDI-J85 engine to deliver high-end range at an affordable price,” Kratos said on Oct. 16 of the memorandum of understanding with Boeing. “The cost savings is in part due to the low-cost turbine engine technology developed and enhanced by TDI over four decades. Powered JDAM will provide low-cost stand-off capability against land and maritime threats. Leveraging the JDAM family of weapons, it is designed to be produced at scale, exportable to any of the 35 JDAM partner nations, at a cost-point that enables affordable mass.”

U.S. Air Force leaders have spoken of the need for longer range air-to-air and air-to-ground weapons (Defense Daily, March 9, 2022) “We’ve invested a lot as a nation–time, effort and money–into building a low-observable force,” Air Force Gen. Mark Kelly, the head of Air Combat Command, told a McAleese & Associates defense conference in Washington, D.C. last year. “We will not get a good return on investment from this low-observable fleet if, due to weapons limitations, we have to push them into ranges where everyone’s observable.”

Joseph Kovasity, a senior vice president at TDI, said in Kratos’ Oct. 16 statement that Boeing’s selection of the TDI-J85 reflects the “incredible potential…for this long-range, precision strike capability.”

“Powered JDAM is the next step in the modular evolution of the JDAM and JDAM Extended Range (JDAM-ER) family of weapons systems,” he said.

Ukrainian military forces have received the JDAM-ER, which has a range of 43 nautical miles.

“The TDI-J85 straightforward architecture is capable of producing 200 pounds of net thrust at Sea-Level Static conditions,” Kratos said. “Specific Powered JDAM requirements are met with design adjustments achieving the desired thrust output at design point. The TDI-J85 is compatible with commercial and/or military kerosene-grade turbine fuels. The TDI-J85’s shaft-integral permanent magnet generator will produce up to 1.5 kW of AC power, from idle through maximum engine speeds, for P-JDAM’s onboard power requirements.”