US approves $5.75 billion arms sale to Saudi Arabia for JDAM-ER kits and tank engines

September 5, 2026 at 12:16 PM2 min

This digest was compiled by AI from multiple sources — links to the originals are below.

The U.S. State Department approved a $5.75 billion Foreign Military Sale to Saudi Arabia on September 4, 2026, covering 10,004 JDAM-ER guidance kits with matching bomb bodies and 60 AGT-1500 tank engines. The package includes 5,004 KMU-572 kits with 500-lb BLU-111 bombs and 5,000 KMU-556 kits with 2,000-lb BLU-117 bombs, plus related support equipment. The sale substantially increases Saudi Arabia's standoff strike capacity with wing-kit technology extending unpowered bomb range beyond 74 kilometers.

Key Facts

The U.S. State Department approved a $5.0 billion Foreign Military Sale to Saudi Arabia for 10,004 JDAM-ER guidance kits and 10,004 bomb bodies on September 4, 2026.
A concurrent $750 million sale covers 60 AGT-1500 tank engines and related support equipment for Saudi Arabia.
The JDAM-ER wing kit extends the range of unpowered bombs to more than 74 kilometers.
The 2,000-lb BLU-117 bombs account for 79.99% of the total bomb mass in the package.

Sale Details

The $5.75 billion bilateral Defense Security Cooperation Agency notifications encompass 5,004 KMU-572 JDAM-ER kits with 500-lb BLU-111 bombs and 5,000 KMU-556 kits with 2,000-lb BLU-117 bombs. The package also includes FMU-139 fuzes, DSU-38 and DSU-40 target detectors, containers, spares, repair support, engineering assistance, and logistics services. The 60 M1 Abrams tank powerplants are covered under a separate $750 million notification.

Bomb Mass Distribution

The 5,004 BLU-111s represent 50.02% of bomb bodies but only 2.502 million lb of nominal bomb mass. The 5,000 BLU-117s represent 49.98% of the weapons but 10.0 million lb, or 79.99% of the total mass. A BLU-117 has four times the nominal bomb-body weight of a BLU-111, so the two stocks provide different target effects and are not operationally interchangeable. The lighter BLU-111 belongs to the Mk-82 family used with the GBU-38 and GBU-62 branches of JDAM; a baseline GBU-38 weighs 559 lb, or 253.6 kg, once the guidance assembly is fitted.