Life-cycle technical support for advanced bomb carriage and release systems is being conducted by Raytheon under a contract from the U.S. Air Force.

The award for the Joint Miniature Munitions Bomb Rack Unit, or JMM BRU, program is an indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract with a period of performance of eight years.

Raytheon said the contract is worth $35 million and that it has already received its first delivery order under the contract that began late last year.

"JMM BRU end users now have a next-evolution system that can be integrated with more than 11 different platforms," said Todd Probert, vice president for the Mission Support and Modernization at Raytheon Intelligence, Information and Services. "Our strength in engineering and design allowed us to offer the customer a system with improved combat turn-around time, enhanced system performance and improved warfighter readiness."

Raytheon said its work under the award includes engineering, investigation and analysis, aircraft integration, testing, training, material and software updates, simulations, modeling, test hardware, initial spares and procurement of associated hardware.

The JMM BRU system will enable the Air Force and U.S. Navy to perform more missions utilizing fewer aircraft, Raytheon said.