Products RMS jagm Partner Lockup

All-Weather, Affordable Missile Gives Warfighters Unfair Advantage

Smoke. Dust. Fog. Sandstorms.

The enemy uses them to avoid detection when moving on the battlefield because they know that no missile to-date is capable of engaging moving targets through bad weather and battlefield obscurants.

Thankfully, that’s about to change. The Raytheon-Boeing Joint Air-to-Ground missile or JAGM, which is currently in development, leverages a state-of-the-art seeker that seamlessly integrates millimeter wave radar and uncooled imaging infrared sensors in a way that allows it to hit its target whether or not there’s bad weather or other obscurants.

RMS Product JAGM Inset Pic

Raytheon’s tri-mode seeker - central to JAGM’s guidance system - can track moving targets through clouds, fog, sandstorms or smoke.
(Download high resolution image.)

But capability is only part of the story.  In today’s challenging fiscal environment, the warfighter doesn’t just need a weapon that works.  That weapon also has to be affordable.

JAGM is being developed in increments by the U.S. Army, an approach driven by budget constraints that led to a restructuring of the program in early 2012 with a sharper focus on affordablity. The incremental approach to development also means some capabilities will be deferred to future development stages.

In the first increment, the guidance section will be integrated by the Army with currently qualified and fielded missile components including the warhead, rocket motor and control actuation system.

Raytheon’s tri-mode seeker is state-of-the-art technology that was successfully flight tested and is now in Engineering, Manufacturing and Development for the U.S. Air Force and Navy Small Diameter Bomb II (SDB II) program. Based on current schedules, the tri-mode seeker will be in its second year of production with SDB II by the time JAGM continued technology development concludes, and well-ahead of future JAGM increment requirements.

JAGM will replace three legacy missiles, which means instead of three global supply chains, there’s only one. That translates to lower lifecycle cost over the life of the weapon. And unlike older missiles, which use different rocket motors for fixed- and rotary-wing operations, ATK and Boeing have further reduced the logistics trail by developing a rocket motor proven to meet the rigorous requirements of future JAGM increments in government testing.

SHARE CONTENT