The Air Force recently awarded Lockheed Martin a $241.6 million contract for Lot 10 production of Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missiles, announced the company on June 28. Under the terms of the deal, the company will supply 191 JASSM baseline missiles and 30 extended-range JASSMs, along with associated equipment and services, according to the company’s June 28 release. “Lockheed Martin’s JASSM baseline missile and ER variant provide the warfighter with critical capabilities and a wide range of mission options not available with any other system,” said Alan Jackson, the company’s JASSM program director. Lockheed Martin builds the stealthy cruise missiles at its plant in Troy, Ala. It has assembled more than 1,100 JASSMs to date. This lot is the second one to include orders for JASSM-ERs. The Air Force let the Lot 9 contract about one year ago. JASSM is already integrated on the B-1B, B-2A, and B-52H bombers and the F-15E and F-16 fighters. B-1s also are cleared to carry the JASSM-ER.
No matter what happens with the Nunn-McCurdy review of the Sentinel ICBM program, the nation must have a land-based element of its nuclear triad, Pentagon acquisition and sustainment chief William LaPlante told the Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee.