JASSM finally gets the nod

The Royal Australian Air Force will become the first export customer for Lockheed Martin's AGM-158 Joint Air-Surface Stand-off Missile (JASSM). The new weapon will arm its F/A-18 Hornet fighters and, eventually, its F-35A Joint Strike Fighters. But contrary to industry and ADF expectations it will not arm the RAAF's AP-3C Orions.

The defence minister, Dr Brendan Nelson, made the long-anticipated announcement in February that the JASSM will be operational aboard the RAAF's upgraded Hornets by December 2009. The missiles are being acquired under a US Federal Military Sales (FMS) deal, but in-service support will be provided by Lockheed Martin under a direct commercial sale agreement.

"The introduction and fitting of the JASSM to the F/A-18 Hornet provides an important capability for Defence and forms a key part of the Government's plan to withdraw the F-111 aircraft," Nelson said. "The acquisition is a prudent decision to ensure Australia retains its strike capability so Australian objectives can be met whilst maintaining the safety of aircraft and crews."

The missiles are being acquired under Project Air 5418 - Follow-On Stand-Off Weapon (FOSOW), whose budget is between $350 and $450 million.

The project was begun in 1998 and DSTO carried out a detailed evaluation of six contenders in 1999. However, the project was shelved in 2000 due to budget problems and only revived last year when the DMO invited Lockheed Martin, Boeing and EADS-LFK to bid for the FOSOW contract. EADS-LFK did not bid, leaving Lockheed Martin and Boeing, offering the AGM-84H Slam-ER, to compete.

The RAAF's only stand-off weapons at present are the Boeing AGM-84 Harpoon Block 2, which arms RAAF Hornets, F-111s and AP-3C Orions; and the Lockheed Martin/Rafael AGM-132 Popeye stand-off missile which arms its F-111s. The latter, whose stand-off range is understood to be less than 100km, was ordered in 1998 but only declared operational last year following lengthy software integration delays.

The JASSM is a stealthy, jet-powered missile with a range of more than 200 nautical miles and is designed to attack high-value, heavily defended targets. JASSM has a multi-role warhead with a programmable fuze designed to attack hardened bunker-type targets as well as area targets and pinpoint objectives such as radar and communications sites.

Contract negotiations will due to begin in March and the the contract should be signed by the end of April, according to Paul Johnson, managing director of Lockheed Martin Australia.

The missiles ordered by the RAAF will also be equipped with a new electronic safe-arm fuze and a Weapon Data Link (WDL) enabling man-in-the-loop control of the weapon, including in-flight re-targeting, right up to target impact, according to Randy Bigum, vice president of Lockheed Martin MFC.

Australian flight trials and qualification test firings of the missile will start in 2007, according to the DMO.

Under Project 5418 the RAAF planned also to arm its Orions with the JASSM in order to provide a cost-effective land, littoral and maritime strike capability, but has cancelled this phase of the program due to the cost and potential technical and schedule risks of integrating the missile with the Orion's mission system. This will not change the number of missiles the RAAF plans to buy, according to the DMO. The RAAF has no plans to integrate JASSM with the AP-3C in the future, nor to acquire an alternative missile to arm the AP-3C, ADM understands.