The U.S. Army awarded Lockheed Martin a follow-on production contract for Joint-Air-to-Ground Missiles (JAGM) and HELLFIRE missiles with a Program Year 3 (PY3) award total value of $483 million. This contract will provide JAGM and HELLFIRE procurement and production support for the U.S. Army, U.S. Navy and international customers. This contract is the third follow-on award that is a part of a multiple-year award that was initially awarded in March 2023. The total contract award value is for up to $4.5 billion through 2025. Both the JAGM and HELLFIRE systems are designed and developed in Orlando, Florida.The weapon systems are manufactured across various Lockheed Martin facilities in Dallas; Orlando and Ocala, Florida.; Archbald, Pennsylvania.; and Troy, Alabama.
“This follow-on contract signals the Army’s continued confidence in both the JAGM and HELLFIRE systems as premier defense capabilities when it comes to ensuring customer readiness worldwide. We will be able to continue to provide procurement and production support for both systems, which is important because both are critical multi-domain combat solutions that protect and defend our armed forces and allies against ever-changing global threats,” said Joey Drake, program management director of Multi-Domain Missile Systems at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control.
The AGM-114 HELLFIRE is an American air-to-surface missile (ASM) first developed for anti-armor use,[6] later developed for precision drone strikes against other target types, especially high-value targets.[8] It was originally developed under the name “Heliborne laser, fire-and-forget missile”, which led to the colloquial name “Hellfire” ultimately becoming the missile’s formal name. It has a multi-mission, multi-target precision-strike ability and can be launched from multiple air, sea, and ground platforms, including the MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper. HELLFIRE currently has more than 30 FMS customers with new HELLFIRE international customer Poland included in the PY3 contract.
The AGM-179 Joint Air-to-Ground Missile (JAGM) is an American military program to develop an air-to-surface missile to replace the current air-launched BGM-71 TOW, AGM-114 Hellfire, and AGM-65 Maverick missiles. The U.S. Army, Navy, and Marine Corps plan to buy thousands of JAGMs. The Joint Air-to-Ground Missile (JAGM) program is a follow-on from the unsuccessful AGM-169 Joint Common Missile program that was cancelled due to budget cuts. JAGM will share basically the same objectives and technologies as JCM but will be developed over a longer time scale. The designation AGM-179 was assigned to the JAGM program. A Low-Rate Initial Production (LRIP) contract for JAGM was approved in 2018. The AGM-179A achieved Initial Operational Capability (IOC) with USMC AH-1Z helicopters in early 2022, clearing the weapon for operational deployment.
