Officials at The Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division (NAWCWD) at China Lake Naval Air Weapons Station in Ridgecrest, California, are requesting that Lockheed Martin Corp. integrate four advanced missiles onto the F-35 aircraft to enable the plane to attack high-value targets, enemy surface warships, moving targets in bad weather and armored combat vehicles.
The project is expected to develop weapons interfaces to enable the land- and carrier-based F-35 to fire the joint air to surface standoff missile (JASSM), long range anti-ship missile (LRASM), joint air-to-ground missile (JAGM) and Hellfire.
Source: Anna Zvereva/CC BY-SA 2.0 DEED
Lockheed Martin will reportedly be asked to modify the JASSM, LRASM, JAGM and Hellfire missiles for firing from the F-35, which has not previously been able to deploy these weapons.
The modifications expected to be made to these missiles might include line of sight and non-line of sight (LOS/N-LOS) technologies for seekers, multi-mode seekers, tube-launched unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), autonomous weapons employment and precision targeting, aircraft and weapons integration, and other similar applications.
For more information, visit the Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control website.
