Pentagon notifies Congress of five billion dollar JDAM package for Saudi Arabia

The Defense Security Cooperation Agency of the Department of Defense has notified Congress of a proposed $5.0 billion arms package for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia built around Joint Direct Attack Munition guidance kits and general purpose bombs. The notification, Transmittal No. 26-35, was delivered to Congress on September 1, 2026, and published in the Federal Register of Monday, October 19, 2026. The Boeing Corporation is named as principal contractor.

The notice is issued under Section 36(b)(1) of the Arms Export Control Act, as amended, and is published to fulfil the requirements of section 155 of Public Law 104-164 of July 21, 1996. It was signed on October 15, 2026 by Stephanie J. Bost, Alternate OSD Federal Register Liaison Officer of the Department of Defense, an agency the text also designates as the “Department of War.” The entire purchase would be financed from Saudi national funds.

A five billion dollar case, split between equipment and support

The transmittal breaks the estimated value into two blocks, with non-major defense equipment accounting for the larger share:

• Major Defense Equipment: $2.0 billion
• Other items and services: $3.0 billion
• Total estimated value: $5.0 billion
• Funding source: national funds
• Implementing military department: Air Force (case code SR-D-YAJ)
• Prior related cases: none
• Sales commission, fee or similar payment: none known at this time

Ten thousand kits and ten thousand bombs

The hardware enumerated in the notification is almost evenly divided between guidance kits and bomb bodies, all of them listed as Major Defense Equipment:

• Five thousand four (5,004) KMU-572 JDAM guidance kits
• Five thousand (5,000) KMU-556 JDAM guidance kits
• Five thousand four (5,004) BLU-111 500-lb general purpose bombs
• Five thousand (5,000) BLU-117 2,000-lb general purpose bombs

Alongside them, the case would include FMU-139 fuze systems; DSU-38 and DSU-40 target detectors; containers and support equipment; spare parts, consumables and accessories, and repair and return support; U.S. Government and contractor engineering, technical and logistics support services; and other related elements of logistics and programme support.

Boeing, offsets and the deployment footprint

The Boeing Corporation, located in Arlington, Virginia, would act as principal contractor. The U.S. Government states that it is not aware of any offset agreement proposed in connection with the sale, and that any such agreement would be defined in negotiations between the purchaser and the contractor. Implementation would not require the assignment of any additional U.S. Government or contractor representatives to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and the notification asserts that there would be no adverse impact on U.S. defense readiness.

Extended-range technology and the regional balance

The annex describes the Joint Direct Attack Munition-Extended Range as a bomb body paired with a warhead-specific tail kit containing an Inertial Navigation System and Global Positioning System precision guidance capability, which converts unguided free-fall bombs into all-weather “smart” munitions; the extended range wing kit can be fitted in the field to existing MK-82 500-lb and MK-84 2,000-lb weapons. The GBU-31 is the 2,000-lb variant, combining a KMU-556 tail kit with a BLU-117 or MK-84 body, while the GBU-38 is the 500-lb variant, combining a KMU-572 tail kit with a BLU-111 or MK-82 body. The highest classification of the articles and services in the case is SECRET.

The notification argues that the sale would improve the security of a Major non-NATO Ally that is “a force for political stability and economic progress in the Gulf Region,” strengthen Saudi airborne defense and homeland defense, and improve interoperability with U.S. forces and other Gulf partners, without altering the military balance in the region. It is one of several Saudi cases published in the same edition, alongside Transmittal No. 26-68 for sixty AGT-1500 tank engines worth $750 million with Honeywell as contractor, and an enhancement to the 2017 THAAD case (Transmittal No. 17-28) that lifts its value to a revised $18.2 billion.

For readers, the notice marks a formal step in a Gulf transfer whose value is dominated not by the munitions themselves but by support, spares and services, and it places Boeing at the centre of a precision-strike pipeline that Riyadh would rely on for years. Because the case is a 36(b)(1) notification, publication in the Federal Register opens the congressional review window that precedes any Letter of Offer and Acceptance.

Source: Federal Register, Vol. 91, No. 200, 19 October 2026, Notices, p. 66121 (official reference: FR Doc. 2026-21340, Transmittal No. 26-35).