Lockheed Martin Explores JASSM Vertical-Launch Potential

By RICHARD R. BURGESS
Managing Editor

As the air-launched AGM-158 Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM) enters full-rate production, its manufacturer, Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control, is studying the potential of it being adapted to the vertical launching systems of Navy warships.

Lockheed Martin is due next month to complete a study requested by the Navy on adapting the JASSM to the Mk41 vertical launching system (VLS), standard on the Navy’s Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers and most of its Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruisers. These ships already are armed with long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles and have successfully launched them into combat during several conflicts during the last 14 years.

The JASSM — which has a range of approximately 200 nautical miles — is not a potential replacement for the Tomahawk, which can strike targets out to 900 nautical miles. However, among the capabilities it provides that the Tomahawk does not is a penetrator warhead.

Kevin Sheehan, the company’s director of business development for strike weapons, said JASSM also has enhanced survivability due to its low radar signature and commonality with the air-launched version. The JASSM is the only insensitive-munition cruise missile and requires no waiver for storage on-board ship.

U.S. Navy surface warships have not possessed a capability to destroy hardened targets since the retirement of the last Iowa-class battleships a decade ago. The JASSM would give surface warships a penetration capability resident in only a few types of fixed-wing aircraft. This capability would be welcome for expeditionary strike groups that, without aircraft carriers, now are limited in their striking power.

The air-launched, retargetable JASSM is in full-rate production for the Air Force, and is expected to enter Navy service by 2009 as a weapon on the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet strike fighter. The Navy plans to request funds to procure 28 JASSMs in 2008 and 106 in 2009.

Lockheed Martin is developing an extended-range (ER) version of JASSM to reach out to 500 nautical miles. The ER version would retain the dimensions of the basic version, but weigh 150 pounds more. The basic version is the subject of the current study, said Sheehan, but the Navy “would be able to go the ER if they want.”

A ship-launched JASSM would require a booster rocket to lift the JASSM out of the launch tube. Lockheed Martin is evaluating existing booster rockets, including the ones used to launch the Tomahawk and Harpoon cruise missiles.

Navy cruise-missile program officials declined to comment on the JASSM VLS study pending its completion.

Defense Industry Notes

§ Northrop Grumman Newport News has been awarded a $1.39 billion Naval Sea Systems Command contract for construction preparation for CVN-21, the design of the next-generation nuclear-powered aircraft carrier. The three-year contract covers advanced procurement and advanced construction of components, as well as further design work. Procurement of the first ship, CVN 78, is expected to be funded in the fiscal year 2007 budget.

§ Raytheon Missile Systems delivered the first production Block IV Tomahawk long-range cruise missile — the Tactical Tomahawk — to the Navy on May 27. The Tactical Tomahawk offers greater flexibility in employment through a two-way data link that enables a controller to redirect the missile to a new target, direct it to loiter awaiting a new target, or direct it to transmit imagery of a target for battle damage assessment. The missile also features a jam-resistant Global Positioning System receiver.

§ Lockheed Martin has delivered the first seven Airborne Mine Neutralization Systems (AMNSs) to the Navy ahead of schedule, company officials said. The AMNS is an expendable, remotely operated mine neutralization system that is deployed from MH-53E Sea Dragon helicopters to identify and neutralize bottom and moored sea mines. A key component of the system is the Seafox, an unmanned underwater vehicle built by Atlas Elektronik — a German subsidiary of BAE Systems — that can acquire a mine by its on-board sensors or be maneuvered to a target by an operator in the helicopter. The Seafox neutralizes a mine by firing a self-contained shaped explosive charge at it.

§ Boeing Integrated Defense Systems has shipped the fifth kinetic warhead for the Standard SM-3 missile to Raytheon Missile Systems, which will install the warhead on an SM-3. The warhead, designed to destroy short- and medium-range ballistic missiles in flight, is the final unit ordered as part of the planned initial deployment by the Missile Defense Agency of the SM-3 in the ballistic-missile defense role later this year.

§ Boeing Integrated Defense Systems has begun fabrication of the X-45C Joint Unmanned Combat System, a larger version of the company’s X-45A demonstrator for the program. The X-45C, with a 49-foot wingspan and a 39-foot length, is larger than the X-45A and is scheduled to fly in mid-2006. The X-45C is designed to fly at 40,000 feet at a speed of 0.85 Mach and carry a 4,500-pound mission payload to a radius of 1,300 nautical miles. In a related development, the two X-45As taxied together during tests on June 7 at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif.

§ Northrop Grumman Ship Systems has been awarded a $100.4 million Naval Sea Systems Command contract for advance procurement of materials for the sixth San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock ship, the San Diego. The lead ship of the class is scheduled to be delivered to the Navy later this year.

§ The Pride of Aloha (ex-Norwegian Sky) was reflagged as a U.S. ship on June 7 as the first major modern passenger ship to be reflagged in 50 years. The 2,000-passenger ship, owned by Norwegian Cruise Line America, is the first of three of the company’s cruise ships that will be reflagged. Maritime Administration officials said that the three ships, planned to cruise the Hawaiian Islands, are expected to create more than 20,000 jobs in the United States and generate more than $825 million in expenditures in the U.S. economy by the end of 2007.