The Lockheed Martin booth at SNA 2020 features a full scale model of a Joint Air to Ground Missile (JAGM) with a sign reading “JAGM for LCS”.
Speaking to Naval News, a Lockheed Martin representative explained that the Longbow Hellfire missile currently deployed aboard USS Detroit as part of the SSMM is no longer in production (and has actually been out of production for a number of years).
The current stock of Longbow Hellfire ammunition available to the U.S. Navy is finite and will only be decreasing going forward. The natural replacement of Hellfire is the JAGM and Lockheed Martin hopes that the U.S. Navy will procure the new missile for both existing and future LCS of both variants.
JAGM has the same form factor as Longbow Hellfire and is fully compatible with the LCS SSMM and combat system. In order to take full advantage of the JAGM new capabilities (especially its semi active laser sensor) the combat system (COMBATSS 21) would require a software update.
The Surface-to-Surface Missile Module or SSMM is one of four modules comprising the LCS Surface Warfare Mission Package. Using Army Longbow Hellfire missiles in a vertical launch capability to counter small boat threats, SSMM increases both the range and the number of targets LCS can engage.
About JAGM
JAGM’s multi-mode seeker provides an improved Semi-Active Laser (SAL) sensor for precision-strike and a fire-and-forget Millimeter Wave (MMW) radar for moving targets in all-weather conditions. These new sensors have been integrated into the JAGM guidance section and mated with the AGM-114R missile bus and demonstrated during multiple guided flight tests.
Fire-and-forget engagement modes significantly increase JAGM user survivability against threat defenses in GPS denied and austere communications environments. JAGM can engage multiple stationary and moving targets, in the presence of adverse weather, battlefield obscurants and advanced countermeasures. Laser and radar guided engagement modes allow JAGM users to strike accurately across wide target sets and reduce collateral damage. JAGM’s target sets include moving and stationary armor, air defense units, patrol craft, artillery, transporter erector/launchers, radar sites and Command & Control (C2) nodes in addition to bunkers and other structures in urban and complex terrain.
JAGM has a range of 0.5 to 8+ kilometers (when launched from airborne platforms).
