Lockheed Martin to build JASSM-ER stealthy cruise missiles for the Air force in $390.8 million deal
EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. – Missile experts at Lockheed Martin Corp. will build 360 stealthy long-range cruise missiles, called the AGM-158B Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile-Extended Range (JASSM-ER), for the U.S. Air Force under terms of a $390.8 million contract announced Friday.
Officials of the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., are asking the Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control segment in Orlando, Fla., to provide Lot 16 of the JASSM-ER weapons program.
The contract includes three foreign military sales (FMS) separation test vehicles, one FMS flight test vehicle-live fire, as well as tooling and test equipment.
JASSM-ER is a 2,250-pound cruise missile with a 1,000-pound penetrator and blast-fragmentation warhead. It uses precision routing and guidance in adverse weather, day or night, using an infrared seeker in addition to the anti-jam GPS to find a specific aim point on the target.
JASSM, which has been in service since 2009, is a long-range, conventional, air-to-ground, precision standoff missile for the U.S. and allied forces that is designed to destroy high-value, well-defended, fixed and relocatable targets. The JASSM has a range of 230 miles, while the JASSM-ER has a range of 620 miles.
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The stealthy JASSM’s significant standoff range keeps air crews well out of danger from hostile air defense systems, while its stealthy airframe makes the smart munition extremely difficult to defeat, Lockheed Martin officials say.
JASSM can be fired from several different aircraft, including the B-1, B-2, B-52, F-16, F/A-18E/F, and F-15E. International JASSM users include the Australian, Finnish, and Polish air forces.
Looking to the future, Lockheed Martin is working on the JASSM to enable the missile to fire from U.S. and international versions of the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II joint strike fighter aircraft and other international military aircraft.
On this contract Lockheed Martin will do the work in Orlando, Fla., and should be finished by August 2020. For more information contact Lockheed Missiles and Fire Control online at www.lockheedmartin.com, or the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center-Eglin at www.eglin.af.mil/Units/Armament-Directorate.
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John Keller | Editor
John Keller is editor-in-chief of Military & Aerospace Electronics magazine, which provides extensive coverage and analysis of enabling electronic and optoelectronic technologies in military, space, and commercial aviation applications. A member of the Military & Aerospace Electronics staff since the magazine's founding in 1989, Mr. Keller took over as chief editor in 1995.
