Boeing awarded BRU-61/A carriage systems production contract to Cobham

Cobham's Mission Equipment strategic business unit has been awarded further production contracts by The Boeing Company to supply more than 500 BRU-61/A carriage systems for the Small Diameter Bomb (SDB) program. The BRU-61/A is a pneumatic multi-store system designed for carriage and release of Boeing's SDB weapon system which has been in service since 2006 on the Boeing F-15E Strike Eagle. To date, Cobham has supplied more than 900 carriages in support of worldwide operations. The BRU-61/A is manufactured at Cobham’s facility in Orchard Park, N.Y., USA. The carriage system provides combat aircraft with the capacity to carry four SDB precision guided unitary munitions on each weapon station, thus significantly increasing the aircraft's weapon carriage loadout per flight. The BRU-61/A carriage is capable of carrying and pneumatically ejecting SDB munitions at sub- and supersonic speeds with the potential growth to be integrated on other fighter, bomber and unmanned aircraft. "We are very pleased to receive further orders for SDB carriages following continued investment in a system that is designed to carry multiple stores and pneumatically eject munitions at supersonic speeds,” said Iain Gibson, Vice President of Cobham Mission Equipment. “We look forward to continuing the development of our relationship with Boeing and the opportunity to bring the SDB capability to additional Navy and Air Force platforms." Cobham Mission Equipment provides a ‘wingtip to wingtip’ capability offering a comprehensive range of weapons carriage and release equipment for fast jets, rotorcraft and UAVs. In service on more than 25 aircraft types, Cobham’s products include air to air and air to ground systems employing both pneumatic and pyrotechnic ejection systems. Cobham Mission Equipment is also the market leader for Air-to-Air Refueling, providing innovative fourth generation nose to tail solutions to defense customers worldwide.