Lockheed Martin and Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace partner on joint strike missle with GPS, infrared seeker, programmable fuze

ORLANDO, Fla., 2 Feb. 2007. Lockheed Martin and Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace of Norway have entered into a joint marketing agreement to market an air-launched version of the naval strike missile. The missile, to be called the joint strike missile (JSM), is designed to be carried internally and launched externally from the F-35 Lightning II aircraft. The JSM will build upon the naval strike missile.

The 1,000-pound, stealthy, and maneuverable anti-ship missile has the capability to strike sea and land targets with its new titanium warhead and programmable fuze. It employs global positioning system/inertial navigation system (GPS/INS) guidance with an imaging infrared seeker, in-flight data link, and an automatic target recognizer (ATR). The missile has a maximum range of more than 130 nautical miles.

The stealthy F-35 is a supersonic, multi-role fifth-generation fighter designed to replace a wide range of existing aircraft, including the AV-8B Harrier, A-10, F-16, F/A-18 Hornet, and United Kingdom Harrier GR.7 and Sea Harrier.