Lockheed Martin has received a U.S. Air Force contract valued at $243.5 million for an eighth production lot of the JASSM cruise missile. The award brings the total contracted quantities of the cruise missile to over 1,200.

The Lot 8 contract is for 158 JASSM missiles, along with fuze reliability, parts obsolescence efforts, test instrumentation kits, system reliability and flight test support. In recent flight tests on B-52 and F-16 aircraft, the stealthy standoff cruise missile proved its reliability and capabilities across a wide variety of targets - including hardened, underground bunkers and air defense systems.

"This contract enables Lockheed Martin to continue to provide the critical capabilities of JASSM to the Warfighter," said Alan Jackson, JASSM program director at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control. "JASSM's combination of standoff range, low observable flight and high lethality provides an unrivaled precision engagement capability and a greater range of options to combatant commanders."

"With the recent success of Lot 7 reliability testing, a successful test flight of a production upgrade vehicle, and the award of this contract, JASSM is back on track," said Lt. Col. Jeff Gates, U.S. Air Force Deputy Program Manager for JASSM.

JASSM is a critical weapon for the U.S. Air Force, with eight production lots already under contract toward a total objective of 4,900 JASSM and JASSM-ER (Extended Range) missiles. Lockheed Martin also produces the baseline JASSM for foreign military sale customers. JASSM has been successfully demonstrated on the B-1, B-2, B-52 and F-16 aircraft. Future platforms include the F-15E, F/A-18 and F-35.

A 2,000-pound class weapon with a penetrator/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 defeat.

Headquartered in Bethesda, Md., Lockheed Martin is a global security company that employs about 140,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services. The Corporation reported 2009 sales of $45.2 billion.

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SOURCE: Lockheed Martin