Lockheed Martin successfully completed the first in a series of tests verifying the ability of the Joint Common Missile (JCM) to destroy urban structures. The test, performed recently at Redstone Arsenal, AL, was part of an analysis of JCM's capability to defeat Military Operations in Urban Terrain (MOUT) targets.

A near-tactical version of JCM's multipurpose warhead was detonated inside a 16- by 16- by 8-foot steel-reinforced concrete building. The structure was demolished, while cameras 50 feet away were undamaged.

The successful test established a baseline for comparison of pressure and temperature data with later tests. It demonstrated the missile's blast fragmentation capability, which is used to destroy so-called "soft" targets, such as buildings, ships, light armored vehicles and personnel. General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems, a business unit of General Dynamics , supplies the JCM warhead.

"This test showed the capability of JCM to destroy a concrete building reinforced with steel, which emulates key types of targets our soldiers face today," said Steve Barnoske, JCM program director at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control. "The test allowed us to collect fragmentation and other data that conclusively proved that JCM meets the customer's lethality criteria."

"This is the face of warfare in the 21st century," Barnoske continued. "It is especially significant that the warhead totally demolished the building while leaving the nearby cameras unscathed. Coupled with the highly accurate tri-mode seeker, the multipurpose warhead will enable JCM to achieve high lethality against urban targets while minimizing collateral damage and civilian casualties."

Earlier tests confirmed the ability of the main warhead to penetrate brick-over-block targets and advanced armored targets, as well as the durability and timing of the time-delay fuze that detonates the main warhead inside urban targets, ensuring target destruction.

The JCM is the only weapon designed to meet eight validated critical capability gaps for the Army, Navy and Marine Corps. JCM will provide fixed- and rotary-wing pilots with a precision-strike, adverse-weather, weapon that can defeat a wide range of stationary and moving targets with minimal collateral damage- a capability that doesn't exist today.

The JCM is the next-generation, multi-purpose, air-to-ground precision missile that will replace the Hellfire, Longbow and Maverick air-to-ground missiles currently in the arsenal of the U.S. Army and Navy. To deliver the multi-purpose warhead to its target, the Lockheed Martin JCM includes a tri- mode seeker with imaging infrared, semi-active laser wand millimeter wave radar capabilities for active and passive "fire-and-forget" and precision- strike targeting.

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