ORLANDO–A final request for proposals (RFP) for a next-generation air-launched guided missile is expected in the coming weeks, according to one of the companies competing for the work.
The Pentagon is likely to release an RFP for the Joint Air-to-Ground Missile (JAGM) program “in the next couple of weeks,” Frank St. John, Lockheed Martin‘s [LMT] vice president for tactical missiles, said here recently.
St. John said the two-month delay is due to some administrative changes within the Pentagon.
“Some acquisition policy changes have added peer reviews,” he said during a press briefing. “We don’t expect any major changes” to the draft version.
Lockheed Martin is competing against a Raytheon [RTN]-Boeing [BA] team for the contract to produce the missile, which could be worth upward of $5 billion over the life of the program.
Last year, Raytheon landed a contract for the Air Force’s next-generation Small Diameter Bomb program, defeating a Boeing-Lockheed Martin team. Asked whether that contest bodes ill for Lockheed Martin’s chances with JAGM, St. John said he remains confident in a JAGM win because Lockheed Martin’s seeker technology was sound.
“The piece of technology we brought to that contest–the seeker–was very favorably reviewed by the Air Force,” he said.
He added that the Air Force could begin buying JAGM for its drones once the technology is integrated onto the Army’s Gray Eagle unmanned aircraft.
“That would be a logical place for them to cut into the program,” he said.
The air service could then consider integration onto fighter aircraft like the A-10, the F-16 and even the F-35, according to St. John. “But there is a lot of work to do before they’d ready to do that.”
Lockheed Martin successfully completed a series of tests to demonstrate the flight characteristics of the Navy’s F/A-18E/F aircraft while carrying the company’s version of JAGM late last year.
St. John said recently that those tests “were considered a success by the Navy” and that the sea service is continuing that testing on its own. St. John said the F/A-18 could be configured to carry 18 JAGMs.