Boeing signs $370 million Israel deal for 5,000 more smart bombs

ARLINGTON, Virginia - Boeing has a new US$289 million (S$370 million) contract with Israel to deliver as many as 5,000 new air-launched smart bombs, according to three people familiar with the transaction.

The aviation company’s Small Diameter Bomb is a guided munition that can be launched by Israeli jets at targets more than 64km away. 

The new contract is not related to the ongoing US and Israeli air strikes on Iran, with deliveries not scheduled to start for 36 months, one of the people said. 

This is at least the third sale of the weapon to Israel, with the State Department in February 2025 notifying the House and Senate foreign affairs committees that Israel had requested 2,166 of the bombs.

Boeing surged about 1,000 of the bombs to Israel after the Hamas attacks of Oct 7, 2023.

The announcement signalled President Donald Trump’s determination to deepen the US commitment to Israel amid the two nations’ partnership in waging war against Iran.

Earlier on March 10, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said Israel has been “a really strong partner in this effort.”

The new contract is not a formal foreign military sale between governments but a direct commercial sale between Boeing and Israel that will eventually be published in the US government’s Federal Register.

The transaction wasn’t disclosed on March 6 in a State Department news release outlining a US$151 million foreign military sale deemed to be an emergency deal that must forgo normal congressional review.

That transaction is for 12,000 general purpose BLU-110 1,000-pound bomb casings made by Repkon USA.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio provided Congress detailed justification that an emergency exists requiring the immediate sale of the BLU-110 casings outside the normal review process, a State Department official said. BLOOMBERG