DoD officials have said that the Pentagon’s fiscal 2024 munitions budget of $30.6 billion–a 24 percent increase over last year’s request of $24.7 billion–stems from the Pentagon’s focus on the Indo-Pacific.
The requested increase is largely attributable to tactical and strategic missiles, not ammunition, as the latter’s funding in the DoD budget is below the amount that Congress appropriated last year.
One example of the requested missile augmentation is the U.S. Air Force ask for more than $1.8 billion for the Lockheed Martin [LMT] Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Munition-Extended Range (JASSM-ER) in fiscal 2024, a $916 million increase from last year’s enacted amount. While the increase would fund the same, current “max production” of 550 missiles annually as last year, the fiscal 2024 budget also undertakes a Large Lot-Multi-year Procurement (MYP) that invests in ramping up production capacity beyond that 550.
The Air Force’s inventory includes more than 4,000 AGM-158 JASSMs, including the AGM-158B JASSM-ER, while the U.S. Navy has about 200 AGM-158C Long-Range Anti-Ship Missiles (LRASM). The Air Force is developing the AGM-158D, 1,000 nautical mile “extreme range” JASSM-ER.
The Air Force has integrated the AGM-158B on the F-15E, F-16, B-1 and B-52 bombers and plans to integrate the missile on the B-2 stealth bomber this fiscal year.
The AGM-158D is in development with plans for new wing and chine designs and “software updates for increased survivability,” per DoD.
The Pentagon has been considering increasing JASSM/LRASM production to a yearly rate of 1,100 at Lockheed Martin’s new plant in Troy, Ala., and the existing one in Orlando.
DoD plans to buy LRASM and the Raytheon Technologies [RTX] AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM) under the same “Large Lot” MYP strategy.
The Navy and Air Force request for LRASM in fiscal 2024 is nearly $1.1 billion for 108 LRASMs, a $515 million increase from last year’s appropriation of about $550 million for 83 of the missiles. The Air Force and Navy’s AMRAAM request in fiscal 2024 is $1.2 billion for 831 missiles, a $484 million boost from last year’s appropriation of almost $740 million for 608 AMRAAMs.
The Air Force has been assessing its inventory of munitions and future needs for high-end conflicts in which the service plans to use the Joint All Domain Command and Control architecture for rapid targeting of mobile adversaries, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown said last month (Defense Daily, Feb. 13).
Brown said that the Air Force is in a “pretty good spot for most of the munitions,” but there are “a handful” of concern.
On the strategic side, the Air Force requests nearly $4.3 billion for the Northrop Grumman [NOC] LGM-35A Sentinel ICBM in fiscal 2024–an increase of about $662 million from last year’s budget.