By Ann Roosevelt
The Raytheon [RTN]-Boeing [BA] Joint Air-To-Ground Missile (JAGM) reports success in all three of the prototype missile’s government-required technology demonstration fly-offs, company officials said.
Lockheed Martin [LMT] also is competing on the program and reported success in one of the three tests.
JAGM is the Army, Navy, Marine program for a precision guided missile with a tri-mode seeker to eventually replace legacy Hellfire, air-launch TOW and Maverick missiles. The program evolved from the canceled Joint Common Missile program.
The missile will be used by six platforms, going first on the Navy F/A-18E/F aircraft, the Army AH-64D Apache helicopter, and the Marine AH-1Z helicopter. Initial Operational Capability is expected for these three in 2016.
Beyond that, in 2017 the Army’s extended range multipurpose unmanned aerial vehicle Grey Eagle will receive the missile as will the MH-60R and the OH-58D helicopters.
The three-phase program is in the first phase, a 27-month technology development phase, which ends in December.
Phase II is a 48-month System Development and Demonstration (SDD), or engineering and manufacturing development. The request for proposals, initially expected in July, has been pushed into the fall.
Phase III is for Low-Rate Initial Production.
Raytheon and Boeing also conducted two JAGM tests before the government tests–a controlled test vehicle to ensure the missile worked as expected and a guided test vehicle launch, a dress rehearsal for the government tests.
During the final Sept. 3 government test at White Sands Missile Range, N.M., the JAGM used its millimeter wave sensor to guide the missile to the target basket, then handed over to the imaging infrared sensor for the end game and aimpoint selection and then terminal guidance, company officials said. This test was at a moving target–a tank–coming toward the missile at six kilometers. The missile hit between the gunner and tank commander’s turrets, destroying the vehicle.
A major driver for Defense Department programs now is cost, which will be a program requirement.
“JAGM was designed for the minimum cost,” Michael Riley, senior manager, Business Development Advances Missiles and Unmanned Systems, said in an interview.
Boeing, for example, took its expertise in missiles, such as the Brimstone, and worked with ATK to improve the rocket motor, lowering the cost, but effectively doubling the range of a Hellfire missile out to 16 kilometers, said Stephen Sherrick, manager, Business Development at Integrated Defense Systems at Boeing. On the warhead, Boeing works with General Dynamics [GD] Ordnance and Tactical Systems.
The missile also is being qualified on the F/A-18E/F outboard weapon station–a first–increasing mission load-out options.
The modular missile can be upgraded and has some empty space, called a “capability section,” Riley said. This space could accommodate whatever the service or services require.
There are intangible cost avoidances, both officials said, such as increasing the survivability of the platform by increasing the stand-off distance, increasing the lethality, and by reducing logistics by joint use. The missile also adds to the operational flexibility for commanders. The Raytheon-Boeing use of an uncooled seeker also reduces cost.