The Air Force awarded Lockheed Martin a $302 million production contract for the production of AGM-158 Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missiles (JASSM), including foreign military sales to Finland and Poland, according to a Dec. 3 contract announcement. “JASSM gives our allies a powerful, vital, and affordable cruise missile capability,” company missile vice president Joe Garland said in a release, announcing the sale to Poland earlier this year. Poland became JASSM’s third foreign military sales customer, joining Australia and Finland in September. The missile will give Poland’s F-16 fleet “operational flexibility, reliability, and mission effectiveness to meet their national defense requirements,” added Garland. Production Lot 14 includes a total of 215 JASSM Extended Range variants, according to the government’s original solicitation. The award closely follows the Lot 13 production award back in October, which included 140 JASSM and 140 JASSM-ER missiles.
The Air Force’s study of possible links to elevated rates of cancer among personnel who worked on intercontinental continental ballistic missiles has begun, the commander in charge of the U.S. ICBM fleet confirmed March 28. The initial phase of that study will mine cancer registries for information and compile a…