Lockheed Martin has been selected to develop the Joint Common Missile (JCM) system, the next generation air-to-ground missile that will be carried on U.S. Armed Forces rotary- and fixed-wing platforms. The contract is worth approximately five billion dollars over the life of the program. Lockheed Martin received an initial contract valued at $53 million to commence work on the program's system design and development (SDD) phase.

The systems design and development contract includes a 14-month risk reduction phase and a 36-month testing/integration phase to ready the JCM for initial production. The first JCMs are expected to reach the field in 2010.

"We look forward to the opportunity to provide our nation's aviators with this outstanding new weapon system," said Richard Edwards, director of Tactical Missiles at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control. "We recognize the trust that our customer has placed in Lockheed Martin, and we will continue to apply to the SDD contract the same disciplined performance we have brought to our company-funded, pre-contract risk reduction initiative."

"We are well-postured to enter the SDD risk reduction phase with high confidence of success," said Steven Barnoske, JCM program director at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control. "Our extensive pre-contract risk reduction test program has significantly mitigated risk on the critical subsystems -- warhead, motor, tri-mode seeker -- our software is mature, and we have demonstrated a low-risk integration solution for both rotary- and fixed-wing platforms. We are ready and eager to develop the important new capabilities that JCM will provide to our nation's warfighters."

The U.S. Army, Navy and Marine Corps are expected to procure up to 54,000 JCM rounds to replace the Longbow/Hellfire missiles on the Apache, Cobra, and Strikehawk helicopters and the Maverick missile on the F/A-18 Hornet jet fighter, at a total contract lifetime value of approximately $5 billion. The United Kingdom's Ministry of Defence has also expressed potential interest in co-developing and producing the new missile.

The design and development of the JCM will be performed at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control in Orlando, FL, and the missiles will be produced at the company's award-winning advanced missile manufacturing facility in Troy, AL.

The Lockheed Martin team includes more than a dozen major suppliers located across the United States and in the UK.

JCM is equipped with a tri-mode seeker that combines semi-active laser for precision-strike, single-shot kill capability with low collateral damage, imaging infrared for passive fire-and-forget and countermeasure robustness, and millimeter wave radar for active fire-and-forget day, night and in adverse weather.

JCM has a multi-purpose warhead that packs both a highly lethal shaped- charge to defeat the most advanced armored threats and a blast fragmentation capability to defeat ships, buildings, bunkers and other "soft" targets by penetrating them with a precursor warhead and then detonating a time-delayed main warhead to incapacitate the target from within.

JCM also has a single rocket motor that can provide the required turndown ratio (boost to sustain) in the temperature extremes of both rotary- and fixed-wing environments, delivering maximum range from all required platforms.

Collectively, these three features will enable Army, Navy and Marine Corps aviators to perform a wide range of close air support missions from multiple platforms against diverse targets to support our forces in whatever scenario they find.

Headquartered in Bethesda, MD, Lockheed Martin employs about 130,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, and integration of advanced technology systems, products, and services.

For additional information, visit our website: http://www.lockheedmartin.com/

SOURCE: Lockheed Martin