Lockheed Martin has been awarded a $130-million contract modification to ramp up the production of Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missiles (JASSM) and Long-Range Anti-Ship Missiles (LRASM).
Tooling and test equipment will be procured for the US Air Force contract, required for production increase.
Work will be performed in Orlando, Florida, and is expected to be completed by December 2027.
US Mulls JASSM for Ukraine
The development comes amid reports that the Biden administration is considering arming Ukrainian F-16s with the air-launched JASSM cruise missile, capable of striking targets 230 miles (370 kilometers) away.
The AGM 158 JASSM extended range (ER) has over twice the range of the baseline variant at 620 miles (998 kilometers), while a newly developed variant, the AGM-158D, has a range of 1,200 miles (1,931 kilometers).
It is not clear which JASSM variant the US administration is considering sending to Ukraine. However, the reported warhead weight of 1,000 pounds (453 kilograms) makes it likelier to be the ER variant.
The stealthy missile features a penetrator/blast fragmentation warhead to take out hardened targets, precision routing, and an infrared seeker to perform in adverse weather and at night, in addition to an anti-jam GPS.
Long-Range Anti-Ship Missile
The LRASM, meanwhile, is designed to take out high-priority maritime targets such as aircraft carriers and guided missile cruisers from a range of 200 nautical miles (370 kilometers/223 miles).
It travels at high subsonic speeds and has a 1,000-pound (453-kilogram) penetrator/blast fragmentation warhead.
LRASM business development lead at Lockheed Martin Dominic DeScisciolo said last year that the company would double the combined annual production of both missiles to 1,000 over the coming years.
Lockheed opened a second production line of the missiles to meet the rising demand, DeScisciolo added.
“We were able to quickly bring the production line up to speed in order to meet the orders we’ve committed to our US military partners,” DeScisciolo told Air & Space Forces Magazine at the time.
