Boeing wins $36.4 million SLAM-ER production contract

Submitted by the NAVAIR Public Affairs Office, PEO (W)

Feb. 13, 2001

The U.S. Navy has awarded Boeing a $36.4 million contract for the Fiscal Year 01 production of the Standoff Land Attack Missile - Expanded Response (SLAM-ER). An affordable inventory upgrade, SLAM-ER incorporates a number of improvements to the baseline SLAM, a derivative of the Harpoon anti-ship missile.

These retrofit upgrades include planar wings to improve range and aerodynamic performance, an improved warhead to increase penetration and lethality against hardened targets, and software improvements that make it easier for the control aircraft to designate track on the target aim point.

Boeing is currently under contract with the U.S. Navy to produce 346 SLAM-ERs, with production expected to continue beyond 2004. Approximately 700 SLAM missiles in the U.S. Navy arsenal will be retrofitted with the SLAM-ER upgrade. The Standoff Missile Systems Program Office, within the Program Executive Office for Strike Weapons and Unmanned Aviation, has cognizance over the program.

SLAM-ER provides the U.S. Navy with surgical strike capability against high-value, fixed land targets, ships in port, or ships at sea. Designed for deployment from carrier-based and land-based aircraft, SLAM-ER can easily be adapted for ship launch. SLAM-ER can be launched from safe standoff ranges of more than 150 nautical miles.

Boeing produces the SLAM-ER in St. Charles, Mo.