Raytheon plans to cut the cost of the AGM-154 Joint Stand-Off Weapon (JSOW) airframe by more than 50% by switching to a single-piece body. It has received an $11 million US Navy contract to design and test a low-cost metal airframe, with development to be completed in March 2007.
The "Block 2" JSOW is planned to become the sole production version of the airframe, says Raytheon. It will be used for both variants of the unpowered glide bomb - the submunition-dispensing JSOW-A and hard-target penetrating JSOW-C.
Raytheon says the Block 2 weapon will benefit from advanced machining and fabrication techniques not available when it designed the original airframe, which has a multi-part construction involving several castings. The company has yet to receive a production contract for the Block 2 JSOW, but the US Navy has long-term plans to buy several thousand.
Source: Flight International