A $6 billion Lockheed Martin Corp. cruise missile program may be terminated if its testing record doesn’t improve, according to the U.S. Air Force.
The weapon was declared combat-ready five years ago and has been deployed even though it has a history of failure in testing. Four of 10 missiles tested during November, January and February didn’t detonate on impact or hit the target -- a reliability rate of 60 percent. The Air Force demands a rate of at least 80 percent and the program is expected to reach 90 percent within four years.
Lockheed, the world’s largest defense company, was told that failure in the next round of testing could have a potentially “significant” impact on funding and the program may be terminated, Air Force spokeswoman Lieutenant Colonel Karen Platt said in an e-mailed statement.
At risk is $4 billion in future orders for as many as 3,847 of the so-called Joint Air-to-Surface-Standoff Missile, Platt said. Lockheed currently has 1,053 missiles on contract.
Platt said a decision to kill the program would be up to the Pentagon’s weapons-buying office and likely would be deferred until after the next round of testing, which is expected to begin “in late summer or early fall.”
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More information about the AGM-158 JASSM cruise missile program...
http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/smart/jassm.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AGM-158_JASSM
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