The U.S. Air Force is seeking proposals for an Extended Range Attack Munition (ERAM) for Ukraine.
“This munition is pivotal for accelerating Ukraine’s capability to meet warfighter needs efficiently and effectively and provides an affordable mass weapon to be produced at scale,” the long range systems division of the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center’s armament directorate (AFLCMC/EBJ) at Eglin AFB, Fla., said in a July 17 solicitation.
AFLCMC/EBJ “is seeking to prototype and adapt commercial autonomous modular open architecture vehicle that can deliver affordable long-range effects,” said the solicitation, which is seeking full proposals by July 26 from the 16 companies that expressed interest in ERAM following a request for information (RFI) in January.
The prototype that results from the Other Transaction Authority funding “will provide a platform that is mass producible,” AFLCMC/EBJ said.
The Jan. 30 RFI said that ERAM is to be “a 500-pound class weapon capable of blast, frag, and limited penetration effects with a range of 250 nautical miles and speed of 0.6 Mach.”
ERAM would have a range of about six times that of the Boeing [BA] Joint Direct Attack Munition Extended Range, which Ukrainian military forces have received.
Boeing is developing the Powered JDAM (PJDAM) to have a range of more than 300 nautical miles (Defense Daily, Oct. 24, 2023).
The PJDAM is to include the TDI J85 engine by Kratos Defense and Security Solutions’ [KTOS] Michigan-based Technical Directions, Inc. business unit, which is a part of the company’s unmanned systems division.
ERAM “should have variable fuzing options and a navigation system capable of operating in a GPS-degraded environment with a terminal accuracy of 50 meters CEP [circular area probable] within 10 meters in both non-EMI [electro-magnetic interference] and high EMI environments,” the ERAM RFI said. “Respondents should indicate their ability to produce over 1,000 units within 24 months of award.”