Article Posted on : - Apr 13, 2010

The Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile system. A Lockheed Photo

ORLANDO (BNS): Lockheed Martin has delivered the 1,000th Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM) system to the US Air Force.

The 1000th missile which was completed as part of the seventh production lot was produced at Lockheed's Troy facility. The eighth production lot for the missile system is under contract, the company said.

The JASSM is an autonomous, long-range, conventional, air-to-ground, precision standoff cruise missile. It is designed to destroy high-value, well-defended, fixed and relocatable targets. The weapon uses a state-of-the-art infrared seeker and the anti-jam GPS to focus on its target.

The 975-kg missile flies at subsonic speed and carries 450 kg penetrator/blast fragmentation warhead.

The missile has been test launched from the B-1, B-2, B-52 bombers and F-16 aircraft. Its future platforms include the F-15E, F/A-18 and F-35 fighter aircraft.

The US Air Force intends to induct 4,900 JASSMs and its longer range JASSM-ER (Extended Range).