The Pentagon awarded Lockheed Martin $818,2 million for the defense giants’ Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile Extended Range, or JASSM-ERs, the Defense Department announced Wednesday.
The multi-million dollar award is provided for 360 Lot 17 JASSM-Extended Range (ER) missiles; 40 Lot 17 Foreign Military Sales (FMS) JASSM-ER missiles; and 390 Lot 18 JASSM-ER missiles.
JASSM is a long-range, conventional, air-to-ground, precision standoff missile for the U.S. and allied forces. Designed to destroy high-value, well-defended, fixed and relocatable targets, JASSM’s significant standoff range keeps aircrews well out of danger from hostile air defense systems.
As to the JASSM-ER, this missile is integrated on the B-1B, the F-15E and is currently completing integration for the internal bay and wings of the B-52H, F-35 Lightning II and F-16C/D. Internationally, JASSM is carried on the F/A-18A/B and the F-18C/D aircraft.
The company’s website said that with superior performance and affordable price, JASSM and JASSM-ER offer the best value of any weapon in their class.
Low rate production of JASSM-ER was authorised in January 2011. The US Air Force successfully completed the initial operational test and evaluation (IOT&E) flight testing of JASSM- ER in May 2013.