Lockheed Martin reports successful JASSM test flight

Published 10:00 pm Thursday, September 25, 2008

Lockheed Martin has reported another successful test flight of its Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile.

The missile is produced at Lockheed Martin’s manufacturing facility in Troy. About 800 JASSM missiles have been assembled in Troy since late 1999 for testing and operational use, the company reported.

A product upgrade verification flight test was conducted on Sept. 18 at White Sands Missile Range, in N.M. The missile successfully navigated through a preplanned route and struck its intended target.

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The primary objective of the flight was to demonstrate global positioning system receiver performance in a jamming environment.

“This flight test successfully demonstrated the continued missile reliability and performance of JASSM’s anti-jam GPS,” said Randy Bigum, vice president of Strike Weapons at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control. “JASSM’s ability to function in a jamming environment is one of its major benefits to our Warfighters.”

Earlier in the year, JASSM was successful in 14 of 16 flight tests conducted by the U.S. Air Force that verified the missile as a reliable weapon system.

A 2,000-pound class weapon with a penetrator/blast fragmentation warhead, the JASSM is produced for the U.S. Air Force and foreign military customers. Using a state-of-the-art infrared seeker in addition to the anti-jam GPS to find a specific target, the missile can cruise autonomously in adverse weather, day or night.Headquartered in Bethesda, MD, Lockheed Martin is a global security company that employs about 140,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services. The corporation reported 2007 sales of $41.9 billion.