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.

FMI: www.raytheon.com