#JAGM (Joint-Air-to-Ground Missile) passes Milestone C and Enters Low Rate Initial Production

Lockheed Martin's @JAGM (Joint-Air-to-Ground Missile)

Lockheed Martin's @JAGM (Joint-Air-to-Ground Missile)

On June 8, 2018, the Army's JAMS program office in Huntsville, Alabama approved the JAGM missile program's entry into Low Rate Initial Production (LRIP). The Lockheed Martin team successfully proved the capability of the missile during its Engineering Manufacturing Development (EMD) phase and successfully fired dozens of missiles against demanding, dynamic targets on land and at sea, resulting in the Milestone C approval and entry into LRIP. The team is now working toward service approvals for Initial Operational Capability (IOC) on the two threshold platforms, the Army's AH-64E Apache attack helicopter in 2019 and the Marine Corps for their AH-1Z Cobra attack helicopter in 2020.

Beyond the Apache and Cobra, any air (or land and sea) platform that currently fires Hellfire missiles is a candidate program for the multi-mode JAGM, including fighter aircraft for the JAGM-F missile currently under development. The Air Force requested $31.596M in their FY19 budget request for a new start for JAGM-F on F-16 and other fighter platforms. The House Armed Services Committee in their report on the FY19 NDAA spoke favorably of future integration of the #JAGM-F on Navy and Marine Corps F/A-18, F-35, and AV-8B fighters, and authorized $10M in additional funding to the DoN for that activity.

Additional details on the Milestone C and LRIP approval can be found in this Jane's 360 article by Robin Hughes: 

http://www.janes.com/article/81125/jagm-enters-lrip