The Air Force awarded Lockheed Martin a $305 million contract for Lot 13 production of the AGM-158 Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM) and its extended-range variant, the JASSM-ER, the company reported Thursday. The contract covers 140 each of the baseline JASSM and the ER version, and includes missiles for the US Air Force as well as partner countries, bringing orders up to 2,300 missiles. Besides the US, Australia, Poland, and Finland have purchased the stealthy cruise missile. The contract represents the fifth production lot for JASSM, which is built in Troy, Ala. Lockheed Martin has been expanding the facility to increase production, which will include another variant, the Long Range Anti-Ship Missile, or LRASM, an anti-ship/anti-mobile target variant. About 1,700 JASSMs have already been delivered. The missile has been integrated on the B-1B, B-2, B-52, F-16, F-15E, and foreign F/A-18s.
In the wake of a major Chinese military shakeup, the head of U.S. Space Command warned of China’s “breathtakingly fast” advances in space during visits to Japan and South Korea. Gen. Stephen N. Whiting’s trip to the Indo-Pacific is his first overseas visit since taking command of SPACECOM in January.