Raytheon Company, TUCSON: Raytheon Company's Joint Standoff Weapon Block II (JSOW Block II), a new variant offering significantly lower unit cost and an additional payload option, successfully flew its first captive test flight Oct. 11 at Edwards Air Force Base on a U.S. Air Force F-16 aircraft.
Raytheon is under contract with U.S. Naval Air Systems Command and expects to complete development of the JSOW Block II in early 2006. Block II is planned to reduce JSOW unit cost approximately 40 percent. Cost reduction is achieved by reducing the parts count and improving the manufacturing process, an example of Raytheon's company-wide efforts to make operations leaner while providing superior products to customers.
All variants of future JSOW precision glide weapons will be manufactured in the Block II configuration. Block II will maintain all standoff and survivability capability of the current JSOW and will include an improved anti-jam Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver. The Raptor GPS system is an advanced navigator developed by Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems and is planned for use in other Raytheon products.
Development of a new payload option for the JSOW A should be complete in early 2006. This new version will use a unitary 500-pound BLU-111 (MK-82) warhead and is designated the AGM-154A-1. This unitary variant will eliminate the unexploded ordnance concerns of cluster munitions while maintaining or increasing effectiveness against a broad target set. It is primarily intended for the international market.
“We are working with the Navy to make JSOW the most cost-effective standoff weapon available,” said Ron Shields, Raytheon's JSOW program director. “We are also developing JSOW moving target capability for land and sea targets.”
Raytheon Company, with 2004 sales of $20.2 billion, is an industry leader in defense and government electronics, space, information technology, technical services, and business and special mission aircraft. With headquarters in Waltham, Mass., Raytheon employs 80,000 people worldwide.
Background Notes and Information:
JSOW is a joint Navy and Air Force program. It is a family of low-cost, air-to-ground weapons that employs an integrated GPS/Inertial Navigation System that guides the weapon to the target. The JSOW uses a common and modular weapon body capable of carrying various payloads. Its long standoff range, at kinematic standoff ranges up to 70 nautical miles, allows delivery from well outside the lethal range of most enemy air defenses.
The AGM-154A (also called JSOW-A) variant dispenses BLU-97 combined-effect bomblets for use against soft and area targets. It is produced for use on the F/A-18, F-16, F- 15E, B-1, B-2, and B-52 aircraft.
The AGM-154C, or JSOW-C, variant incorporates an imaging infrared seeker for high precision and a Broach multi- stage warhead, which has both a blast-fragmentation and hard target penetration capability for use against point targets.
JSOW-C is in full rate production and achieved initial operation capability in February 2005 with the U. S. Navy and Marine Corps. It is currently being produced for Navy F/A-18s and has been selected by Poland for use on its F-16s.
More than 400 JSOW-As have been used in combat operations to date. More than 1,900 JSOWs have been delivered to date.
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