World's Biggest Defense Contractor in Overdrive Mode - Part 4

AGM-158 Joint Air-to-Surface Stand-Off Missile (JASSM) and the Long Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM)

Lockheed Martin is also ramping-up the production capacity on the Joint Air-to-Surface Stand-Off Missile (JASSM) and the Long Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM), in collaboration, with the USAF, which arms its fighter jets, including, the F-16, F-15 and the F-35, in addition, to the U.S. Navy’s F/A-18E/F Super Hornets.

Further, Lockheed Martin has been actively working towards ramping-up production capacity on the JASSM & LRASM missile systems, which has already been increased from 550 earlier to 720 missiles at present in 2024 at Lockheed Martin’s existing production facilities located in Troy, Alabama. The production of the JASSM & LRASM is slated to be further increased to almost 1,100 missiles going forward over near to medium term to meet rapidly growing demand from domestic and international customers.

The Upcoming AGM-158 XR

Further, Lockheed Martin currently is also working towards the development of a further extended range variant of its existing JASSM/LRASM missiles by elongating the size of the missile which would enable it to carry more fuel for the longer range. The latest AGM-158 XR variant was just revealed at the Air, Space & Cyber 2024 event held just outside Washington D.C. in Sept 2024. The XR variant will further build on the existing ER variant equipped with the Weapon Data Link (WDL) which enables the missile to be redirected mid-flight after launch and provides the unmatched capability for these missiles to communicate with each other including data sharing or target coordinates, like drone swarms, and collaborate with each other to strike them down almost in a 'wolf-pack' manner.

Further, the XR will enable the USAF and the US Navy respectively to strike targets even further deeper inside enemy zones leveraging the XR variant's long range of 1,000+ miles with a 1,000 lb penetrating warhead with the extended range & payload emanating from the stretched fuselage which can be used for developing both the XR variants of the JASSM and LRASM variants.

Lockheed Martin plans to produce the XR variant on the existing production line on which the existing variants are currently being produced using the same production processes, components and supply chain partners, thereby, effectively leveraging scale economies and production efficiencies. The latest AGM-158 XR's range is likely to almost match the existing Tomahawk cruise missile used by the U.S. Navy, thereby, providing the USAF & USN warfighters with another highly capable cruise missile in their weapons portfolio.