Longbow Flight Shows Interface Is Tight
Lockheed Martin says it's
successfully integrated and flown the Joint Common Missile
instrumented measurement vehicles (IMVs) on the Boeing AH-64D
Apache Longbow attack helicopter, validating the physical and
environmental interface between the missile, the M299 missile
launcher and the helicopter platform.
The IMV is outfitted with sensors and instrumentation to record
the environments the missile must operate under during flights. It
contains an inert warhead and rocket motor to simulate a tactical
round in flight.
"Successful measurement of the environments that the JCM will
experience on its target platforms during pre-launch and launch
operations is an important step in successful integration," said
Steve Barnoske, JCM program director at Lockheed Martin Missiles
and Fire Control. "JCM provides extended standoff range for all
four platforms that will maximize crew survivability."
Successful integration of the JCM IMVs, the combat-proven
all-digital M299 launcher, and the AH-64D, characterized the
vibration, shock, pressure (acoustic) and temperature environments
that JCM will experience, and proved the airworthiness of the
JCM.
The environmental flights on the Apache are the first in a
series of such integration and flight tests that will integrate JCM
on the four required platforms for the US Army, Navy and Marine
Corps. The remaining collection of environmental data - on the
Marines'AH-1Z Super Cobra attack helicopter, the Navy's MH-60R/S
Seahawk armed reconnaissance helicopter and the Navy's F/A-18E/F
Super Hornet jet fighter - will be conducted during the remainder
of 2005.
"Following a successful preliminary design review and first
flight back in June, we will be continuing our development,
including validating the integration environments on all four
required platforms over the next few months. Successful integration
on these platforms is key to deriving the cost benefits of having
one missile replace seven missiles on four platforms," said Rick
Edwards, vice president for Tactical Missiles at Lockheed Martin
Missiles and Fire Control.
JCM's tri-mode seeker and multi-purpose warhead will enable it
to defeat a wider target set in a single mission on all four
platforms than is currently possible," Barnoske explained. "It will
also triple the loadout on the Super Hornet - 12 JCMs replace four
Mavericks and provide safe 'bring back' of unexpended weapons in
carrier landings."
Lockheed Martin also supplies the M299 launcher to the Army for
the Apache, which has carried and fired HELLFIRE II and Longbow
HELLFIRE missiles in Iraq. JCM's aerodynamics are similar to those
of HELLFIRE on Apache. Marvin Engineering of Inglewood, CA,
provides the M299 hardware; the software is produced by Lockheed
Martin at its facility in Ocala, FL.
The other two rotary-wing platforms, the Super Cobra and the
Seahawk, will carry JCM on the M59 launcher, which is a minor
modification to the M299, and is produced by Lockheed Martin and
Marvin Engineering
The JCM launcher on the Super Hornet will be the LAU-145/A
dual-rail launcher, supplied by EDO Corporation (NYSE: EDO) of
North Amityville, NY. The launcher and JCM models have been
fit-checked and uploaded to the aircraft, and successful wind
tunnel tests have been conducted. The LAU-145/A includes a
pneumatic cooling system to provide JCM sensor cooling for the
fixed-wing aircraft, and takes advantage of the existing J-Weapon
interfaces on the Hornet.
The only weapon designed to meet eight validated critical
capability gaps for the Army, Navy and Marine Corps, JCM provides
fixed- and rotary-wing pilots with a precision-strike,
adverse-weather, weapon that can defeat a wide range of stationary
and moving targets with minimal collateral damage -- a capability
that doesn't exist today.
JCM is the next-generation, multi-purpose, air-to-ground
precision missile that will replace the HELLFIRE, Longbow and
Maverick air-to-ground missiles currently in the arsenal of the US
Army and Navy. To deliver the multi-purpose warhead to its target,
the Lockheed Martin JCM includes a tri-mode seeker with imaging
infrared, semi-active laser and millimeter wave radar capabilities
for active and passive "fire-and-forget" and precision-strike
targeting.