Raytheon [RTN] yesterday said it received an Army contract consisting of two phases and valued at about $65 million to develop and deliver a next generation guidance section for Joint Air-To-Ground Missile (JAGM) continued technology Development (CTD).
Raytheon is competing with Lockheed Martin [LMT] on the JAGM program.
In August, Lockheed Martin received a not-to-exceed $64.15 million contract also for guidance section work (Defense Daily, Aug. 20).
Due to funding issues, the program was restructured to move forward incrementally in the CTD, with the guidance section first to be developed to provide an all weather capability against static and moving targets, J.R. Smith, director of Business Development for JAGM at Raytheon, told Defense Daily.
The Army continues to work on the program’s acquisition strategy for the rest of the backend of the missile.
The first four months of Raytheon’s CTD contract, issued by the Army’s Aviation Missile Command, the company will update its design and complete a delta preliminary design review.
“It’s not the design of the seeker so much as it is focusing on being able to get the seeker integrated–the guidance section–with the Hellfire backend,” Smith said. “We’ve done the hard part.”
Raytheon is leveraging its low-cost, proven, uncooled tri-mode seeker now in development for the Air Force and Navy Small Diameter Bomb II (SDB) program. Thus, the JAGM seeker head has a high level of commonality with the SDB II seeker.
The JAGM program can potentially take advantage of some of the qualification testing already done with SDB II. That could reduce risk and cost for JAGM CTD.
“Our state-of-the-art seeker is a compelling technology because it offers our warfighters a new, game-changing capability–hitting moving targets in all weather conditions,” said Tom Bussing, vice president of Advanced Missile Systems at Raytheon Missile Systems. “As our SDB II production contracts reflect, we can meet or exceed the performance demanded to outpace future threats for unit costs comparable to current weapons. With our JAGM solution, capabilities will grow, but costs will not.”
The current schedule will see Raytheon’s SDB II tri-mode seeker in its second year of production by the time JAGM CTD concludes, Smith said.
During the next 24 months, the team will focus on a critical design review, guidance section qualification and testing, and delivery of JAGM guidance sections.
The CTD will culminate with the Army integration of Raytheon JAGM guidance sections to currently qualified and fielded missile components, including the warhead, rocket motor and control actuation system.