Lockheed Martin announced Monday that it has delivered the 1,000th joint air-to-surface standoff missile to the Air Force. The company handed over this missile, a Lot 7 production unit, during a rollout ceremony at the Lockheed manufacturing facility in Troy, Ala. “This milestone shows the resolve of Lockheed Martin employees to deliver top quality products to our customers,” said Alan Jackson, the company’s JASSM program director. He added that the company has “overcome challenges” and “accommodated new requirements” along the way and is “delivering a precision weapon that provides unparalleled capabilities.” Lockheed is under contract so far for eight lots of JASSMs. Overall, the Air Force intends to procure roughly 5,000 of them, which will be both in a baseline and extended-range configuration.
The Air Force wants to pump more than $12 billion over the next five years into its new affordable long-range missiles program and recently asked industry to push the flights of some of those munitions beyond 1,200 miles.