Lockheed Martin's JASSM

07:21 GMT, June 26, 2008 ORLANDO, FL | Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT] has received a U.S. Air Force contract valued at $107 million for a seventh production lot of the JASSM™ cruise missile. The contract award will bring total contracted quantities of the cruise missile to 1,053.

The contract is for procurement of 111 JASSM production missiles, along with systems engineering and flight test support. In recent flight tests on the B-52 and B-1 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 us to provide JASSM’s critical capabilities 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 give planners a valuable set of options when planning strikes in the early stages of a conflict. JASSM can take out the most critical, well-defended targets.”

Lockheed Martin produces JASSM inTroy, AL, at its award-winning Pike County operations facility. The site has been producing JASSM production missiles since late 1999. JASSM Lot 5 missile deliveries are expected to be completed in 2008. The U.S. Air Force plans to procure 4,900 JASSMs over the life of the program.

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 integrated on B-1, B-2, B-52 and F-16 aircraft. It is also planned for integration on the F-15.