Related Stories: Americas - USA, Helicopters & Rotary, Lobbying, Lockheed Martin, New Systems Tech, R&D - Contracted
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Raytheon goes 3/3, Lockheed Martin 1/3 in government firing tests. (Sept 10/10)
The Joint Common Missile (JCM) was seen as the next-generation, multi-purpose, air-to-ground precision missile that will replace AGM-114 Hellfire family, AGM-65 Maverick family, and airborne *GM-71 TOW missiles with a single weapon usable by the airplanes, helicopters and UAVs of the U.S. Army, Navy, and Marine Corps. It was also being considered for use on some ground vehicles.
A 2005 program cancellation derailed that effort, but JCM has risen from the procurement grave – as the JAGM (Joint Air-Ground Missile) program, with contracts to 2 vendor teams.
- The JCM/JAGM Program
- JAGM’s Competing Teams
- Contracts and Key Events [updated]
- Appendix A: The Road Less Taken – JCM’s Program History
- Appendix B: Additional Readings & Sources
In May 2004, Lockheed Martin was picked over Raytheon and a Boeing-Northrop Grumman team to conduct JCM’s 4-year system development and demonstration (SDD) phase, which was to be worth as much as $1.6 billion. The long-term U.S. production estimate of 54,000 missiles would have brought the program to $5 billion, and the United Kingdom had expressed interest in the new weapon and participated in the development process. Tests were underway, and going well, up until the 2005 program cancellation.
The original JCM requirements were really designed for the RAH-66 Comanche scout helicopter, and were written before the Army’s Future Combat Systems mega-program. JAGM updates those requirements, and attempts to re-start the competition under a new approach.
Under the revised JAGM program, the US Army, Navy, and Marine Corps is thinking of ordering about 35,000 missiles. Beginning in 2016, they would replace Lockheed Martin’s GM-114 Hellfire family of missiles on the Army’s AH-64D Apache attack helicopters, ARH-70 Arapaho scout helicopters, and MQ-1C Sywarrior UAVs; and the Navy’s new MH-60R/S Seahawk helicopters. the Marines’ AH-1Z Viper attack helicopter would carry them in place of Hellfire missiles and Raytheon’s *GM-71 TOW family, and Navy F/A-18 Hornets would carry them in place of Raytheon’s AGM-65 Maverick missile.
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That roster is likely to expand. Hellfire missiles will be carried on a wide array of future UAVs, including the MQ-8 Fire Scout and A160 Hummingbird. It will even equip some C-130J Hercules transport aircraft, thanks to modular quick-fit programs like Harvest Hawk.
Pentagon planners expect standardization from the TOW, Hellfire, and Maverick families of missiles to one variant of JAGM will keep maintenance and supply costs lower. Integration with the F-35 fighter family is possible in future, and so are international contracts if the missile makes it through development to become a program of record. At that point, JAGM’s biggest international competitor would be the MBDA /Boeing Brimstone, which is being integrated with Britain’s Royal Air Force Harriers, Tornados, and Eurofighters.
In industrial terms, that makes JAGM the last big American missile competition for some time. The stakes are huge.
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The US military is looking for a missile that’s about 110 Lbs, 7” diameter, 70” long, with a range of 0.5 – 16 km when fired from helicopters and 2 – 28 km if fired from fixed wing aircraft.
Pentagon acquisition czar Young introduced a prototyping requirement for JAGM as part of a wider-ranging set of acquisition reforms. The JAGM program is currently in a 27 month “risk reduction” development phase, leading up to a competitive flyoff between the 2 contractor teams. Program Management Reviews were held in Q2 of FY 2009, and Preliminary Design Reviews are still slated for Q3 of FY 2010. The planned Milestone B decision that would begin full-scale System Design and Development for the winner is planned for Q1 of FY 2011 (November 2010), with an Engineering and Manufacturing development start in December 2010.
The various seeker modes requested have all been implemented on other missiles, but JAGM adds at least one interesting technical challenge: a single rocket motor solution, to be used on all platforms. It must have minimum smoke, in order to avoid both smoke inhalation by by helicopter engines, and easy tracking of the missile’s origin. It will need to handle a much wider temperature range, from the hottest desert sun to the Antarctic-class temperatures at high fighter jet altitudes. Finally, it must deliver the requested range, which is almost twice the advertised range for its AGM-114 Hellfire predecessor.
Initial Operational Capability on the AH-1Z and AH-64 attack helicopters, and F/A-18 E/F Super Hornet is expected in FY 2016. IOC on the Army’s MQ-1C SkyWarrior UAV, and the Navy’s MH-60R helicopter, is expected in FY 2017. Until then, Hellfire and Maverick missiles will remain in use; Raytheon re-started production of their laser-guided Maverick in 2009.
A 2010 GAO document estimates total JAGM program cost over 20 years at about $6.4 billion: $1.64 billion for Research, Development, Test and Evaluation; and $4.74 billion to build 33,853 missiles. Budgets to date have included:
FY 2009: $169.7 million (all RDT&E, $114.8M Army / $54.9M Navy)
FY 2010: $203.9 million (all RDT&E, $126.5M Army / $77.4M Navy)
FY 2011 request: $231.1 million (all RDT&E, $130.3M Army / $100.8M Navy)
Previous JCM incumbent Lockheed Martin is back with a team, competing against a team of Raytheon and Boeing. In Team Lockheed’s design, The JAGM’s body and tri-mode sensors build on the existing body designs and sensors from Lockheed Martin’s AGM-114 Hellfire missile family, with its options of Hellfire II semi-active laser or millimeter wave Hellfire Longbow missiles, and on the cooled sensors used by the Lockheed/Raytheon Javelin imaging infrared (IIR) missile to add extra fire-and-forget insurance. Lockheed Martin can also leverage its incumbent status for both the current Hellfire missile family, and the M299 missile launcher that equips most helicopters.
Seeker improvements beyond the tri-mode features include extended range, “safing” that would allow carrier landings with live weapons instead of forcing planes to jettison their loads, and greater “fire and forget” capability. A single insensitive-munition rocket motor provides the required propulsion. Once it reaches the target, a multi-purpose warhead similar to the Hellfire II’s packs a shaped-charge designed to defeat the most advanced armored threats, along with a blast fragmentation capability to defeat ships, buildings, and bunkers with a two-phase warhead punch.
Team Lockheed includes LM Missiles and Fire Control (lead integrator, tri-mode seeker), Aerojet in Camden, AK (rocket motor), Aliant Techsystems in Woodland Hills, CA (aircraft integration), EMS technologies in Atlanta, GA (millimeter wave antenna), General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems in Niceville, FL (warhead), Honeywell in Minneapolis, MN (inertial measurement unit), L3 in Cincinnati, OH (focal plane array infrared detector), Roxel in Summerfield, UK (propellant), Marvin Engineering in Inglewood, CA (JAGM launcher), Moog in Aurora, NY (control fin actuators), and Perkin Elmer in Miamisburg, OH (warhead firing module).
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Raytheon and Boeing took a different conceptual approach. Raytheon’s Senior Business Development Manager Michael Riley flew AH-64D Apache Longbow helicopters for 10 years. “What this is, is not a missile program,” he says. “It’s an integration program,” because that’s where many of the costs and challenges typically lie. To make this point, he drew a whiteboard picture of the Apache and of the F-18. “Who builds the helicopter? The black boxes that go in it? Who builds the fighter? Who performs missile integration for these platforms? Is there anything else I need to tell you?” The answer to these questions was “Boeing,” and discussions soon brought the firms together under a common vision.
Chief Engineers Emil Davidoff and Andy Hinsdale saw the F/A-18 Hornet as the toughest integration engineering problem, because of the conditions it faces: -65C temperature at altitude, shock, vibration and impact from carrier landings, plus supersonic buffeting underwing. All for a missile that was supposed to be similar in size and weight to the Hellfire, but with 2x range, a tri-mode seeker, and a similar cost target.
The team’s response was to use their own set of proven technologies. MBDA and Boeing’s Brimstone missile is already designed and tested for use on fast jets like the Harrier, Tornado, and Eurofighter; it would serve as the body. The challenging specs for a new rocket motor would be addressed by ATK. Some algorithms from Raytheon’s XM1111 Medium Range Munition guided tank shell were helpful, and the tri-mode laser/radar/ uncooled imaging infrared seeker would leverage Raytheon’s existing Common Tri-Mode Seeker (CTMS) program.
The uncooled infrared seeker currently offers less resolution than Lockheed’s cooled seeker, but is more reliable, lighter, and cheaper to maintain. The CTMS is already part of the NETFIRES NLOS-LS PAM, and helped Raytheon win the GBU-53 Small Diameter Bomb Phase II competition – against Boeing, no less – in 2010. While the SDB-II seeker will be used for tests, JAGM production will use a dedicated 4th-generation upgrade.
The most difficult challenges in these kinds of efforts are not technical, but human. “Coopetition” between firms that are competing on related projects is a difficult process at the best of times, and can feel like an arranged marriage even when it succeeds. Trust-building over time, a firewall between co-operating and competing teams, and other standard measures are always useful; but they do not guarantee success.
In business, as in rocket motors, there is such a thing as chemistry. The relationship between Chief Engineers Davidoff and Hinsdale has been part of that, and so has a joint belief that this competition is ideally suited for their partnership. Win or lose, therefore, the JAGM partnership between Raytheon and Boeing is flourishing, and may have long-term effects. Before the verdict on their main effort has even been rendered, both teams have said that they are looking for synergies in other areas, and other programs.
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The JAGM program will be managed by the U.S. Army’s Aviation and Missile Command, with participation by the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps.
Oct 23/10: A Raytheon/Boeing funded test fires a JAGM prototype equipped with the new Boeing-ATK rocket motor, which would be used on their production missile. The test is successful in collecting data to update the missile’s flight and simulation software, and allows the team to advance to engineering and manufacturing development (EMD) and a Preliminary Design Review.
This is the team’s 6th missile test, and the 3rd privately-funded test. All tests to date have met their objectives. Raytheon.
Oct 15/10: DoD Buzz reports that Raytheon isn’t using a production version of the JAGM missile in its firing tests, just the seeker. Raytheon replies that the tests’ terms are aimed at the seeker, and do not require production-ready missiles. DoD Buzz must concede the point:
“Here is what the RFP says: “The fly-off missile prototypes will represent PDR level configurations using a Warhead Replacement Telemetry Unit. It will include a series of Tactical Missile Air-gun and/or Rail Test Firings with a Warhead integrated into a non-functional Tactical Missile to gain insight into Warhead /Fuze functioning.”
Lockheed Martin says that their JAGM test missiles have all been production ready configurations – but that will only help them in the short term if failings in their test firings are traceable to their missile design, rather than their seekers. Meanwhile, Raytheon & Boeing will continue component and higher-level testing of their missile design.
Sept 10/10: DoD Buzz reports that the cause of Lockheed Martin’s missile failure in its second test-firing was a bracket that holds one of the rocket motors. Unfortunately, they’re going to have to more root cause analysis, because…
“The day before the deadline for official government testing, Lockheed Martin’s Joint Air To Ground Missile prototype missed the target, leaving the defense giant with two misses out of three in the competition for the $5 billion program. Raytheon struck the target on its third test, a company source said, giving them their third successful shot of three.”
That doesn’t end the team’s chances, it just means that further firing tests would have to come out of Lockheed Martin’s pocket, as the team moves toward its final submission model. Given the huge future stakes involved, there’s no doubt that Lockheed Martin will finance any tests required.
Sept 1/10: Raytheon announces success in the 2nd of 3 government-sponsored JAGM firings. Their missile used its uncooled imaging infrared (IIR) guidance system to hit an armored vehicle target at 4 kilometers/ 2.5 miles. During the most recent test, all three guidance systems operated simultaneously and provided telemetry data that enabled engineers to conduct further analysis of the weapon. The test is significant, because Lockheed Martin’s matching test was an overshoot, and Raytheon’s uncooled IIR sensor s generally seen as a tradeoff between lower cost and maintenance, in exchange for lower performance.
This is actually the Boeing/Raytheon team’s 4th test firing, as the team funded 2 of its own tests in April 2010.
Aug 16/10: Lockheed Martin and teammates Marvin Engineering and Aerojet announce successful JAGM component and system Preliminary Design Reviews (PDRs). The team completed PDRs on Aerojet’s JAGM propulsion solution, which uses Roxel UK’s minimum-smoke propellant grain, and on launchers that included the U.S. Navy’s quad-missile helicopter (AH-1Z, MH-60R) and tri-missile fixed-wing (F/A-18 E/F Super Hornet) launchers. The team continues to increase the severity of environmental testing in preparation for engineering manufacturing development. Lockheed Martin.
Aug 9/10: Raytheon wins the SDB-II competition against Boeing and Lockheed Martin, and cites its tri-mode seeker as a key reason. It remains to be seen whether this proves helpful in the JAGM competition.
Aug 6/10: DoD Buzz gets information from Lockheed and Raytheon concerning their manufacturer-financed test shots to date.
To date, Lockheed Martin has had 2 flight readiness checks in June & July. A Lockheed-funded check had a pre-launch malfunction. A government-funded check failed when range instruments malfunctioned, but that missile was later used on Aug 2/10 for a successful test shot at White Sands Missile Range, NM. The Aug 2/10 laser-guided shot tested the tri-mode seeker, but used the laser for targeting, and scored a direct ht from 16km. An Aug 3/10 IIR test against a tank target at 4km led to an overshoot. Team Lockheed says they’re confident they’ll have their 3 successful tests by the deadline.
Raytheon paid for 2 missile test shots in April 2010 to see if they were on the right path, and met their objectives. Their next test shot on June 23/10 tested the tri-mode seeker, but used the laser for targeting, and scored a direct ht from 16km. A 4th test shot is scheduled for Aug 13/10.
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July 26/10: The Raytheon-Boeing team announces that their JAGM design has successfully completed the 1st of 3 government-sponsored firings, using its laser guidance system to hit an 8×8-foot target board from a distance of 10 miles/ 16 km. All 3 guidance modes were used during the flight for telemetry data, but the laser was used to final targeting. This is actually the 3rd test firing of their design, following 2 company funded tests in April 2010.
May 5/10: Raytheon announces that their partnership has completed wind tunnel testing of the Joint Air-to-Ground Missile from the F/A-18 E/F Super Hornet.
May 5/10: Lockheed Martin announces a successful end to JAGM wind tunnel tests involving the Navy’s F/A-18 E/F Super Hornet jet fighter.
The more than 200 hours of initial high-speed flying qualities wind tunnel tests were conducted at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, CA. The goal was to ensure minimal changes to the fighter’s handling characteristics with the missiles on board. After that, tests moved to 150 hours of work at the Arnold Engineering Development Center (AEDC) wind tunnel in Tullahoma, TN. Those tests further refined the structural requirements of the launcher and JAGM, and included safe launch and separation tests involving Lockheed Martin and Marvin Engineering’s triple-rail JAGM launcher. A final set of tests at the Boeing Vertol wind tunnel in Philadelphia, PA, demonstrated and validated low-speed flight characteristics of the Super Hornet when loaded with JAGM.
April 20/10: Raytheon/Boeing team announce the 1st successful test of its Joint Air-to-Ground Missile at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. The weapon, fired from a ground-based rotary-wing launcher, reportedly performed a series of preprogrammed maneuvers and flew to a predesignated location, validating the flight control software and Brimstone airframe. Raytheon-Boeing release
April 13/10: Lockheed Martin concludes a series of static, tower-based and captive-carry flight tests of its tri-mode JAGM seeker in a limited dirty battlefield/countermeasure rich environment at Redstone Arsenal, AL. The seeker was tested against both active and passive countermeasure systems including white and red phosphorous, fog oil, smoke, millimeter wave chaff, flares, camouflage netting and mobile camouflage systems.
This test series was preceded by an array of successful captive-carry tests conducted by Lockheed Martin in clean, non-dirty-battlefield flight environments, during both favorable and adverse weather conditions including sun, rain, freezing rain, sleet and snow. Hady Mourad, JAGM program director at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control, said that “the seeker performed precisely as designed.” Lockheed Martin release.
April 6/10: Lockheed Martin announces successful extreme temperature tests for its proposed JAGM rocket motor, developed in conjunction with Gencorp’s subsidiary Aerojet. The final completed tests were a series of cold temperature missile motor firings were conducted in Camden, AR, using the same rocket motor design planned for the tactical missile, with a composite motor case, with the system conditioned to -65F degrees in order to simulate high-altitude conditions.
The partners describe these tests as a “breakthrough,” which may not be an exaggeration. The rocket is one of the program’s most challenging technologies, because it has to do several things at once: smokeless/ low-smoke launch and flight, operation over a wide range of temperatures from searing deserts to extreme cold at fighter-jet altitudes, and a high enough turn-down ratio (flow variance from boost to sustain) to give the missile its required performance and range. The Raytheon/Boeing team is also working on this area, but their partner is ATK. Joint release: Lockheed Martin | Aerojet.
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March 31/10: Lockheed Martin announces successful initial tests on the multi-mode seeker for its JAGM contender, demonstrating all of the sensor modes simultaneously. Program officials also recently held Kaizen events, or Structured Improvement Activity (SIA), to streamline the manufacturing process at Lockheed Martin’s seeker and electronics production facilities in Ocala, FL; and Troy, AL.
The Lockheed Team is a bit behind their competitors at this point. Upcoming captive-carry testing will verify performance in a flight environment, with thermal and vibration performance, and electromagnetic interference testing slated for later in 2010. Lockheed Martin release.
March 30/10: The US GAO audit office delivers its 8th annual “Defense Acquisitions: Assessments of Selected Weapon Programs report. With respect to the JAGM program, the GAO document is more an official fact sheet than an analysis, given the program’s early stages. Data from that document has been incorporated into this article.
The GAO adds that the program must also complete a “postpreliminary design review assessment” before it can be certified to enter engineering and manufacturing development.
Jan 29/10: Raytheon and Boeing announce the end of their captive flight tests for the Joint Air-to-Ground Missile competition, which test the missile’s ability to pick up targets, guidance, and ability to handle the stresses created by its platforms and their flight environments. The next step would be guided test shots.
Oct 6/09: Raytheon and Boeing announce that they’ve completed a series of captive-carry flight tests of their tri-mode JAGM seeker, within the same size dimensions as their planned JAGM missile. By demonstrating that the seeker fits, and will not be affected by the buffeting associated with carriage on a fast-moving aircraft, the way is clear for installation in prototype missiles and use in live firings.
Raytheon’s next-generation tri-mode seeker leverages technology used on their Small Diameter Bomb II (where Boeing is their main competitor) and the NLOS-LS/NETFIRES improved Precision Attack Missile.
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May 13/09: Boeing subsidiary McDonnell Douglas Corp. in St. Louis, MO received a $7.4 million time and material delivery order against a previously issued Basic Ordering Agreement (N00019-05-G-0026) for wind tunnel testing of JAGM prototypes on their F/A-18E/F Super Hornet.
Work will be performed in St. Louis, MO (92%); and Philadelphia, PA (8%), and is expected to be complete in March 2011. About $5.8 million in contract funds will expire on Sept 30/09, at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Systems Command in Patuxent River, MD will manage this contract.
Oct 8/08: Lockheed Martin announces and details its JAGM team.
Oct 2/08: The US military announces the initial contracts under the JAGM program, within each contracting team’s limit per earlier entries. Bids were solicited via the Web, and 2 bids were received by the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command in Redstone Arsenal, AL.
Raytheon Co. in Tucson, AZ receives an $18.7 million fixed price incentive firm target contract, for 27 months of technology development for the Joint Air Ground Missile Program. Work will be performed in St. Louis, MO (Boeing) and Tucson, AZ (Raytheon) with an estimated completion date of Dec 31/10 (W31P4Q-08-C-A789).
Lockheed Martin Corp. in Orlando, FL received an $18.7 million fixed price incentive firm target contract, for 27 months of technology development for the Joint Air Ground Missile Program. Work will be performed in Orlando, FL; Ocala, FL; and Troy, AL, with an estimated completion date of Dec 31/10 (W31P4Q-08-C-A123).
Sept 22/08: The Raytheon / Boeing team announces a 27-month, $125 million contract for the Joint Air-to-Ground Missile program. The contract funds technology development program to develop and fire 3 prototype missiles with fully integrated tri-mode seekers.
Sept 18/08: Lockheed Martin announces that it has won a 27-month, $122 million competitive risk-reduction phase for the Joint Air-to-Ground Missile (JAGM) system. Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control VP Rick Edwards:
“Our extensive risk-reduction tests have significantly mitigated risk on the three critical subsystems [seeker, warhead, rocket motor], our software and simulations are mature and proven, and we have made significant strides in developing low-risk platform integration solutions.”
See also the Orlando Sentinel: “Lockheed’s $122M missile contract could create 200 jobs in Orlando area.”
April 14/08: Raytheon Company and Boeing announce a teaming agreement to pursue the U.S. Army-U.S. Navy Joint Air to Ground Missile program, which has an intended in-service date of 2016. Raytheon will be the prime contractor within the team, and the move is significant in that Boeing will not be teamed up with Northrop Grumman this time around.
Raytheon makes existing TOW and Maverick missiles, and the team-up with Boeing creates commonality on a different level: integration with the manufacturer of many USAF and Navy aircraft, an area that Lockheed Martin covers on its own. Boeing is also part of the MBDA-led team that developed the Brimstone missile, Britain’s answer to the JCM program. Raytheon release.
Feb/March 2008: JAGM RFP re-issued, for May 19/08 turn-in.
Sept 26/07: Jane’s Missiles & Rockets reports that:
“A new Joint Air-to-Ground Missile (JAGM) programme is expected to become the successor of the Lockheed Martin AGM-169 Joint Common Missile (JCM) programme. As with the JCM, the JAGM is to be a multiservice weapon able to replace all versions of the Lockheed Martin Hellfire, Raytheon Maverick and Raytheon TOW missiles that currently equip fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters and unmanned aerial vehicles in US service…”
September 2007: Original JAGM RFP rescinded.
June 17/07: Original draft of JAGM RFP issue.
June 15/07: Official termination of the Joint Common Missile program.
Feb 21/07: The Lexington Institute think-tank wades into the controversy with “Joint Common Missile: Why Argue With Success?” Excerpt:
“Here’s a fantasy. Imagine three military services agreed on the need for a versatile air-to-ground missile that could precisely destroy a wide range of elusive targets—everything from camouflaged armored vehicles to terrorist speedboats. Imagine they found a low-cost design that could do those things day or night, good weather or bad, even when enemies were trying to jam the missile. Imagine the services selected a company that developed the missile on time and on cost, meeting all of its performance objectives. And imagine the missile was fielded expeditiously, replacing four cold-war missiles with an easy-to-maintain round that saved military lives while minimizing unintended damage.
You’d have to be pretty naive to believe the Pentagon’s dysfunctional acquisition system could deliver all that, wouldn’t you? That’s right, you would—because the military actually has a program matching that description, and senior officials have been trying to kill it for two years. Why? Well, nobody really knows why….”
Jan 26/07: Inside Defense, Pentagon OKs Funding For Hellfire Replacement Effort:
“The Pentagon comptroller has directed the Army and Navy to pony up $68.5 million to fund missile research and development in an account that could be used to revive the Joint Common Missile—or something like it—more than two years after the Office of the Secretary of Defense moved to terminate the program….”
Dec 30/05: Inside Defense reports that when US House and Senate conferees reconciled the details of the FY 2006 defense appropriations bill, they restored $30 million to the Army-led JCM program to continue the missile’s development ($26 million in research, development, test and evaluation funding from the Army, and $4 million from the Navy). They’ve also required a report by January 30, 2006 explaining how the Pentagon plans to fill the future gaps created by the missile’s demise, and a cost analysis of continuation vs. termination and buying existing missiles. Depending on what that study says, the JCM program could rise again.
Appendix A: The Road Less Taken – JCM’s Program History
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The JCM program had made heavy use of modeling & simulation in its early phases, and was the first missile program ever to reach a Milestone B decision without conducting a live test. Subsequent live tests, including live fire tests against simulated urban targets, were also successful.
The missile reported less success on the budget front, however. In 2005, the Pentagon cut the Joint Common Missile (JCM) program in order to fund operations in Iraq. Canceling the Army-led JCM was estimated to save about $2.4 billion over the next 6 years ($928 million Army, $1.5 billion Navy). This triggered a counter-campaign by Congressional representatives, and created a controversy over the future of the program that never really went away.
The UK ended up developing its own system. In November 1996, the UK gave MBDA the Brimstone contract, in order to create a fire-and-forget anti-armor missile that could be fired by fast jets as well as helicopters. Brimstone uses inertial guidance plus millimeter-wave radar, and has a terrain following mode as well. In October 2003, a successful series of test firings were carried out, and the missile entered service with the RAF in March 2005. The 50 kg/ 110 pound Brimstone is being deployed on Britain’s Harriers, Tornados, and Eurofighters, and experiments are underway with ground vehicle launchers as well.
The need for a capability similar to the JCM remained clear even to the Pentagon, and so the U.S. Department of Defense’s Program Budget Decision (PBD) No. 753 directed the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to commission a study for a very similar weapon system in time for the 2008 budget review. Meanwhile, the Alabama Congressional delegation and other members of Congress kept lobbying to keep the missile program going. All of that work eventually ended up as a renewed competition under a new name: Joint Air-to-Ground Missile (JAGM).
Appendix B: Additional Readings & Sources
- Defence-Update.com: JCM – Joint Common Missile
- GlobalSecurity.org: Joint Common Missile
- Boeing All Systems Go Magazine (Vol. 1 #6, 2003) – The Next Generation Weapon: Joint Common Missile
- Boeing – Brimstone Precision Guided Missile. Britain’s answer to the JCM’s demise; development was led by MBDA.
- AUSA 2009 – Joint Attack Munition Systems Overview: Col. Michael Cavalier, Project Manager. Includes JAGM.
- DoD Buzz (Aug 6/10) – Last $5B Tac Missile Competition
- AFCEA Signal (June 2009) – Multipurpose Missile Program Accelerates
- Lexington Institute (Feb 21/07) – Joint Common Missile: Why Argue With Success?
- Huntsville Times (Mar 24/05) – Battle stepped up to save Redstone missile project
- Spacewar.com (Mar 17/05) – Lockheed Martin Joint Common Missile Destroys Urban Targets
- Aerospace Daily & Defense Report (Jan 05/05) – Joint Common Missile’s Demise Spurs ‘Capability Needs’ Study
- Battle Command, Simulation & Experimentation Directorate (July 30/03) – SMART Lessons Learned Case Summary
- DID thanks the personnel at Raytheon Missile Systems in Tucson for their time and cooperation in clarifying their bid.
