A Lockheed Martin Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM), the world's first stealthy conventional cruise missile, was successfully launched Wednesday from an F-16 aircraft and precisely navigated through its second verification flight test at White Sands Missile Range, NM. The missile successfully struck the target as planned.

JASSM successfully guided to its preplanned target using its internal global position system and inertial navigation capability. The inertial guidance system consists of an inertial navigation system combined with control mechanisms, allowing the path of a vehicle to be controlled according to the position determined by the inertial navigation system.

"We're pleased to see JASSM continuing to perform well in flight test to validate its design and enhance warfighters' confidence in it's reliability," said Col. James Geurts, JASSM program manager and commander of the Long Range Missile Systems Group at Eglin Air Force Base, FL.

"JASSM is demonstrating its operational capabilities in these tests," said Randy Bigum, vice president of Strike Weapons at Lockheed Martin. "The systems coming out of our Troy facility will enable the warfighters to complete their missions by taking out high-priority targets from well outside the range of air defenses."

Follow-on Test and Evaluation (FOT&E) will make up the majority of the remaining 2005 flight tests. Lockheed Martin plans to conduct three additional live launches, called Product Upgrade Verification flight tests, to prove out the new electronic safe-and-arm fuze and plans to end the year with the first flight testing (captive carriage and a jettison test vehicle) of the JASSM Extended Range (JASSM-ER) configuration.

Lockheed Martin's state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Troy, AL, which produces JASSM, recently expanded to support production rates of up to 40 per month. Since 1999, Lockheed Martin has produced approximately 279 JASSM missiles in Troy for use in tests, along with Low Rate Initial Production (LRIP) missiles for operational use. The facility has delivered 176 missiles to the Air Force to meet inventory objectives, which include missiles for the B-1, B-2, B-52 and F-16 weapon systems.

JASSM continues to be a critical weapon for the U.S. Air Force, with the fourth production lot of 288 missiles under contract towards a total of 4,900 rounds through at least 2018. The award-winning missile factory was designed to accommodate U.S. Air Force and Foreign Military Sales production rates concurrently. JASSM is being proposed to the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) for its AIR 5418 requirement. The ability to be integrated on aircraft with the Joint Standoff Weapon (JSOW) interface has been successfully demonstrated. This provides a low-cost integration path for JASSM on multiple aircraft for both the RAAF and European Participating Air Forces (EPAF) countries.

A 2,000-pound class weapon with a dual-mode penetrator and blast fragmentation warhead, JASSM cruises autonomously in adverse weather, day or night, using a state-of-the-art infrared seeker in addition to the anti-jam GPS to find a specific aimpoint on the target. Its stealthy airframe makes it extremely difficult to defend against.

The missile is planned for deployment on B-1, B-2, B-52 and F-16 aircraft and has a range greater than 200 miles.

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.

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SOURCE: Lockheed Martin