Nine Out Of Ten Deemed Successful
Raytheon Company's
unitary/penetration variant of Joint Standoff Weapon (JSOW-C) has
completed operational test (OT) firings with nine of 10 shots
successful against a wide range of targets. JSOW-C was developed by
a team that includes the US Navy, Raytheon, BAE Systems and Thales
Missile Electronics.
"JSOW-C will be a significant addition to the warfighting
capability of the Navy and Marine Corps," said Capt. David Dunaway,
the Navy's JSOW program manager. "We look forward to the fleet
introduction of JSOW unitary."
JSOW-C incorporates a Raytheon-developed uncooled, long-wave
infrared seeker with automatic target acquisition algorithms,
providing the Navy a launch-and-leave weapon with a long-range
standoff precision strike capability. JSOW-C will be the first US
weapon to incorporate the two stage broach blast
fragmentation/penetration warhead, developed by the United
Kingdom's BAE Systems. Thales provides the fuze. JSOW-C has a
unique capability for a glide weapon in its ability to attack a
hardened target in a near-horizontal mode.
Operational testing took place primarily at the Naval Air
Systems Command's Pacific Land Range at China Lake (CA). OT tests
the entire weapon system under fleet Navy and Marine Corps
operational conditions. Delivery began this month of the first
production missiles ordered under a previous low-rate initial
production contract in July, 2003.
JSOW-C was tested against a wide array of targets ranging from
radar sites to caves and hardened bunkers including targets where
concealment and other methods were used to attempt to deceive the
missile. "We are very pleased with the success of the JSOW OT
firings," said Ron Shields, Raytheon's JSOW program director. "The
performance of our weapon against the concealment and deception
exceeded expectations."
JSOW is a joint Navy and Air Force program. It is a family of
low-cost, highly survivable, air-to-ground weapons employing an
integrated Global Positioning System/Inertial Navigation system
that guides the weapon to the target. More than 400 JSOW-As have
been used in combat operations to date.
The JSOW family uses a common and modular weapon body capable of
carrying a variety of payloads and handling multiple munitions. Its
long standoff range of up to 70 nautical miles allows delivery from
well outside the lethal range of most enemy air defenses. The
AGM-154A (also called JSOW-A) variant dispenses BLU-97
combined-effect bomblets for use against soft and area targets. It
is produced for use on the F/A-18, F-16, F-15E, B-1, B-2 and B-52
aircraft. The AGM-154C (JSOW-C) is currently being produced for
Navy F/A-18s and has been selected by Poland for use on its F-16s.
The Navy/Raytheon team is developing a Block II configuration of
the JSOW weapon system that provides significant cost reductions to
all JSOW versions. The first Block II configuration weapons will be
delivered in 2007. Additionally, other JSOW improvements are under
way to add anti-ship capability, reduce unexploded ordnance
concerns, hit moving targets, provide bomb hit indication, provide
network capability and further reduce costs.