The US Air Force has awarded a Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM) Lot 8 production contract, valued at $243m, to Lockheed.
The Lot 8 contract includes the supply of 158 JASSM missiles to the air force that will bring the total contracted quantities of the cruise missile to over 1,200.
The contract also includes fuze reliability, parts obsolescence efforts, test instrumentation kits, system reliability and flight test support.
The JASSM is a 2,000lb-class weapon with a stealthy airframe and is equipped with a penetrator/blast fragmentation warhead.
The JASSM is equipped with a state-of-the-art infrared seeker and an anti-jam GPS system that guides itself autonomously in all weather conditions and finds a specific aimpoint on the target.
Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control JASSM programme director Alan Jackson said JASSM’s combination of standoff range, low observable flight and high lethality provides an unrivalled precision engagement capability and a greater range of options to combatant commanders.
In a recent flight tests on B-52 and F-16 aircraft, the JASSM cruise missile has successfully hit targets including hardened, underground bunkers and air defence systems.
Presently, the JASSM has been successfully demonstrated on the B-1, B-2, B-52 and F-16 aircraft, with F-15E, F/A-18 and F-35 being selected as platforms for future demo.
