Boeing Secures $78M Saudi Contract for SLAM ER Missiles

The U.S. Department of Defense announced a Saudi contract valued $78.35 million to Boeing for SLAM ER missiles.

This modification exercises an option to procure various material associated with a quantity of 36 Stand-Off Land Attack Missile Expanded Response (SLAM ER) data link pods and containers in support of the SLAM ER obsolescence redesign program for the government of Saudi Arabia, a DoD release today said.

Work is expected to be completed in December 2026.

In May 2020, the company won $1.9 billion to provide SLAM ER missiles to Riyadh.

U.S. President Joe Biden is reviewing the sale of weapons to Saudi Arabia and U.A.E. These proposed deals have met with intense opposition for their involvement in the Yemen war.

A group of Senate Democrats say the Biden administration should use the leverage that military cooperation and arms sales provide to pressure Saudi Arabia into ending its blockade tactics in war-torn Yemen. 

“The United States has diplomatic and economic leverage to compel Saudi Arabia to end its callous blockade of Yemen and we must use it before more lives are needlessly lost,” 16 U.S. senators wrote to President Joe Biden in a letter provided to Al-Monitor in May 2021.

The letter, which was led by Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, says the failure to allow the unfettered delivery of food, fuel and other humanitarian aid through the Houthi-controlled port of Hodeidah “should have a direct impact on our relationship with Saudi Arabia.”

Sources of leverage with Riyadh, the senators wrote, include “pending weapons sales, military cooperation, the provision of maintenance for war planes and spare parts, as well as U.S.-Saudi ties more broadly."

AGM-84H/K SLAM-ER (Standoff Land Attack Missile-Expanded Response)

The SLAM ER is an advanced standoff precision-guided, air-launched cruise missile. The Harpoon is an all-weather, over-the-horizon, anti-ship missile.

SLAM-ER incorporates a global positioning system-aided guidance system; imaging infrared seeker and two-way data link for man-in-the-loop control; improved missile aerodynamic performance characteristics that allow both long range and flexible terminal attack profiles; an ordnance section with good penetrating power and lethality. SLAM-ER uses automatic target acquisition, a revolutionary technology that helps improve target acquisition in cluttered scenes, overcomes most infrared countermeasures and mitigates the effects of environmentally degraded conditions. The SLAM-ER can be launched and controlled by F/A-18C/D/E/F and P-3 platforms.