Defense News:
Lockheed Martin’s Joint Air-to-Ground Missile (JAGM) won the company a $66.3 million development contract to eventually replace the venerable Hellfire and air-launched TOW anti-tank missiles on rotary wing and unmanned aircraft for the US Army, Navy and Marine Corps.
Lockheed was the lone bidder, according to the Army’s announcement Monday. The service’s Program Executive Office, Missiles and Space awarded the contract, which includes two additional options for low-rate initial production valued at approximately $60 million each.
The missile, which is scheduled to reach initial operational capability in 2018, would be placed on the Army’s AH-64 Apache and Marine Corps’ AH-1Z helicopters. Lockheed says it is also compatible with the MQ-1C Gray Eagle and MQ-9 Reaper drones.
The design’s dual-mode seeker combines an onboard radar and a semi-active laser sensor with the AGM-114R Hellfire Missile body. According to Lockheed, the laser- and radar-guided engagement modes allow JAGM users to strike accurately and reduce collateral damage. It has an advertised range of five miles.
Lockheed has touted the fire-and-forget mode as increasing user survivability against threat defenses in GPS-denied and austere communications environments, and its ability to engage multiple stationary and moving targets, through bad weather, obscurants and advanced countermeasures…
