When Finland selected the Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightning II as its new fighter on 10 December, the country also became the third customer so far to select the Kongsberg Joint Strike Missile (JSM) as its maritime strike weapon of choice.
Helsinki will acquire 64 F-35A Block 4 aircraft under its $8,378 billion euro H-X program to replace the Finnish Air Force fleet of McDonnell Douglas (Boeing) F/A-18C/D Hornets and included in the deal is a range of weapons. Besides the JSM, the Finnish weapons package includes Raytheon AIM-120 Advanced Medium Range Air to Air Missiles (AMRAAM) and AIM-9X Sidewinder missiles, as well as Small Diameter Bomb (SDB) I and II, Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAM) and the Lockheed Martin AGM-158B extended range Joint Air to Surface Strike Missile (JASSM-ER).
“The weaponry is to be procured within the programme funding availability by the end of the year 2035. The weapons package will be optimised during the procurement process, taking into account availability of the newest weapon types and changes in the operating environment,” Finland’s Ministry of Defence said in a statement.
“With optimised weapons procurement, the system’s capability will be maximised in the Finnish operating environment and the F-35 system’s life-cycle guaranteed for the longest feasible time.”
A spokesperson for Kongsberg said the JSM will be the first maritime strike and land attack weapon to reach operational status and is the only one so far to be specifically designed for internal carriage in the F-35A’s weapons bay.
Besides Finland, Japan and Norway have selected the JSM for their F-35A’s and, as ADM noted recently, Australia is considering the missile as its future maritime strike weapon for the RAAF’s F-35As.
“The JSM is of interest to many F-35 user nations, as most have not made a decision yet on long range strike weapons,” a Kongsberg spokesperson said.
The Australian government has partnered with Norway on the development of the missile and BAE Systems Australia is developing the Passive Radio Frequency Sensors (PRS) for the weapon.
“Defence will look to select the F-35A maritime strike weapons around FY2023/24, as part of Air 3023 (Phase 2),” a Defence spokesperson told ADM in our earlier story.
However, JSM’s integration is still ongoing and Australia will have to wait until the next major software upgrade (Block 4) becomes available – a configuration the Finnish jets will be delivered in.
“The Joint Strike Missile is part of the Block 4 suite of capabilities being added to the F-35, which are currently being integrated into the F-35 fleet,” a Lockheed Martin Australia spokesperson said at the time of our earlier story. “It has entered into the flight test phase of its development with first in-flight release of JSM from the F-35 occurring in February 2021.”