Lockheed Martin to build air-to-ground smart munitions with sensors and satellite navigation

EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. – U.S. Air Force air-to-surface weapons experts are asking Lockheed Martin Corp. for additional Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM) and Long-Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM) under terms of a $50.5 million order announced on 13 Feb. 2026.

Officials of the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., are asking the Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control segment in Orlando, Fla., for JASSM and LRASM Large Lot Procurement. This modification brings the total value of the contract to $9.6 billion.

Large Lot Procurement refers to buying missiles in very high quantities under a consolidated contract instead of issuing smaller annual production awards. to increase production capacity (thousands of missiles over several years); reduce cost per missile through economies of scale; stabilize the industrial base and supply chain; and accelerate fielding to meet U.S. and allied demand.

JASSM, which has been in service since 2009, is a long-range, conventional, air-to-ground, precision standoff missile for U.S. and allied forces that is designed to destroy high-value, well-defended, fixed and relocatable targets. The JASSM has a range of 230 miles, while the extended-range JASSM-ER has a range of 620 miles.

Long-range version

The 5,000-pound AGM-158D will nearly double the range of the JASSM-ER to 1,200 miles and carry an explosive warhead of 2,000 pounds by using an enhanced wing design, new missile control unit, a different paint coating, an electronic safe and arm fuze, and secure GPS receiver. The first AGM-158D are scheduled for deliveries in January 2024.

The JASSM-ER is a 2,250-pound cruise missile with a 1,000-pound penetrator and blast-fragmentation warhead. It uses precision routing and guidance in adverse weather, day or night, using an infrared seeker in addition to the anti-jam GPS to find a specific aim point on the target. The order includes hardware spares.

The stealthy JASSM missiles have standoff ranges to keep air crews well out of danger from hostile air defense systems, while their stealthy airframes makes the smart munitions extremely difficult to defeat, Lockheed Martin officials say.

Stealthy cruise missile

The AGM-158B JASSM-ER is a stealthy cruise missile that flies a preplanned route from launch to a target, using Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite navigation guidance and an internal navigation system. It has an infrared seeker for terminal guidance.

JASSM can be fired from several different aircraft, including the B-1, B-2, B-52, F-16, F/A-18E/F, and F-15E. International JASSM users include the Australian, Finnish, and Polish air forces.

Looking to the future, Lockheed Martin is upgrading the JASSM to enable the missile to fire from U.S. and international versions of the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II joint strike fighter aircraft and other international military aircraft.

Anti-ship version

LRASM, meanwhile, is a joint project of the U.S. Defense Advanced Projects Agency (DARPA) in Arlington, Va., the Navy, and the Air Force to design an advanced anti-ship missile that can launch from the Navy F/A-18E/F Super Hornet jet fighter bomber, as well as from the Air Force B-1B Lancer long-range strategic bomber.

In the future LRASM also will launch from the F-35 Lighting II joint strike fighter, the P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol jet, as well as from the Navy Mark 41 shipboard Vertical Launch System. The missile travels at high subsonic speeds, and likely will give way in the future to expected new generations of hypersonic missiles. Submarine-launched versions are under consideration.

LRASM is designed to detect and destroy high-priority targets within groups of ships from extended ranges in electronic warfare jamming environments. It is a precision-guided, anti-ship standoff missile based on the Lockheed Martin JASSM-ER.

The advanced anti-ship missile is intended to replace the ageing Harpoon anti-ship missile. It has a multi-mode radio frequency sensor, a new weapon data-link and altimeter, and an uprated power system.

200-mile range

The LRASM can be guided toward enemy ships from as far away as 200 nautical miles by its launch aircraft, can receive updates via its datalink, or can use onboard sensors to find its target. LRASM will fly towards its target at medium altitude then drop to low altitude for a sea skimming approach to counter shipboard anti-missile defenses.

The LRASM uses on-board targeting systems to acquire the target independently without the presence of intelligence or supporting services like Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite navigation and data links. Lockheed Martin is designing he missile with advanced counter-countermeasures to evade hostile active defense systems.

The Lockheed Martin LRASM has a 1,000-pound penetrator and blast-fragmentation warhead, multi-mode sensor, weapon data link, and enhanced digital anti-jam global positioning system to detect and destroy selected surface targets within groups of ships.

Onboard sensors

Lockheed Martin is in charge of LRASM overall development, and the BAE Systems Electronic Systems segment in Nashua, N.H., is developing the LRASM onboard sensor systems.

LRASM development is in response to a gap in Navy anti-ship missile technology identified in 2008. The standard Navy anti-ship missile is the subsonic Harpoon, which has been in the inventory since 1977.

Since LRASM started development more than a decade ago, however, hypersonic cruise missiles able to fly faster than five times the speed of sound have become one of the Pentagon's top priorities. This has the potential to limit overall LRASM production numbers.

On this order Lockheed Martin will do the work in Orlando, Fla., and should be finished by August 2029. For more information contact Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control online at www.lockheedmartin.com/en-us/products/jassm.html, or the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center at www.aflcmc.af.mil.