A Raytheon/Boeing team has released the first video showing a live firing of their proposed replacement for the AGM-114 Hellfire and AGM-65 Maverick missiles.
The 23 June test shot by the Raytheon/Boeing team is one of the final steps in the bidding process for the joint air to ground missile (JAGM) contract, which the army intends to award around December or January. The army also is evaluating a JAGM bid from Lockheed Martin.
The video shows the unarmed missile striking a 2.4 x 2.4m (8 x 8ft) target board from a distance of 16km - the required range for a JAGM launched by a helicopter.
The video also shows how the missile veers steeply upward after being fired from a launcher. The test requires the guided test vehicle to lock-on to the target with a tri-mode seeker after reaching maximum altitude. Each JAGM has a sensor package that includes uncooled imaging infrared, semi-active laser and millimetre-wave radar.
The JAGM also includes a long-range rocket motor that doubles the roughly 8km firing distance of the AGM-114. To replace the AGM-65 on fixed wing aircraft, the JAGM is required to hit targets up to 28km away.
Both the army and US Marine Corps intend to buy thousands of JAGMs to replenish Hellfire and Maverick inventories with a single munition.
Raytheon provides the tri-mode seeker for its JAGM team, while Boeing provides the missile body.
The video was approved for release only a week after Raytheon beat a Boeing/Lockheed Martin team to win a US Air Force contract to develop the GBU-53/B small diameter bomb (SDB) increment II, a 113kg (250lb)-class weapon that also features a tri-mode seeker.
Source: Flight International
