Defence

Lockheed Martin has bolstered the long-term funding outlook for its AGM-158A JASSM stand-off missile by completing two successful flight tests at the White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico late last month. Conducted using a Rockwell B-1B bomber on 25 January and a Lockheed F-16 fighter two days later, the launches come at a potentially critical time for the cruise missile programme, which is emerging from the threat of Congessional budget cuts and potential termination after earlier test failures (Flight International, 14-20 June 2005).

“We are now 11 out of 13 flight-test successes,” says Lockheed JASSM programme manager Mike Inderhees. The company has had $100 million restored for the procurement of Lot 5 missiles in the latest US defence budget, with another $67 million to fund research, test and development of an extended-range (ER) variant and beyond-visual-range datalink.

The January tests were part of a series of verification flights to check reliability and affordability improvements made following earlier problems, including with the missile’s wing-fold mechanism. They also for the first time evaluated the weapon’s electronic safe and arm fuze function.

The JASSM-ER, meanwhile, is scheduled to undergo one more captive carriage flight before making its first full free-flight test around mid-year, says Inderhees. The new variant is expected to make up a “large chunk” of the 4,900 missiles Lockheed plans to deliver through 2018, he says. Some 330 JASSMs have so far been delivered to arm the US Air Force’s B-1Bs and F-16s, with its Northrop B-2A and Boeing B-52 bombers next in line to receive the weapon.

Lockheed is also working with the USAF to develop a universal interface that will enable its Boeing F-15s to carry the type, Inderhees says.

n Lockheed has completed windtunnel tests on a proposed maritime interdiction development of the JASSM that it says could enter service around 2010-11 (Flight International, 10-16 January). Expulsion tests have also been conducted to demonstrate the ability to expel the warhead from the front of the stealthy airframe during the terminal phase of flight, after which it will use a rocket engine to impact its target at supersonic speeds. Lockheed is also testing algorithms to show how JASSM’s seeker could engage maritime threats, says Inderhees.

GUY NORRIS / LOS ANGELES