The Navy's Stealthy Glide Bomb Is About To Get Way More Capable
The service is funding work on a powered version of the AGM-154 Joint Stand-Off Weapon and could give it new payloads in the future.
By Joseph TrevithickApril 27, 2018
Just recently, Raytheon announced that it had finished the work necessary to integrate its AGM-154 Joint Stand-Off Weapon glide bomb, or JSOW, into the internal weapons bays on the U.S. Navy’s F-35C Joint Strike Fighter. It’s an important development, especially given that the service is also developing a powered version with quadruple the range, but half the cost of other available air-launched cruise missiles.
Earlier in April 2018, the Massachusetts-headquartered defense contractor declared that the F-35C was fully capable of carrying the AGM-154 internally and that the pairing would now move on to operational testing. The goal is for the weapon to reach initial operational capability as an internal option on the Navy’s variant of the Joint Strike Fighter, or JSF, at some point in 2019. On April 23, 2018, the Navy also announced plans to proceed with the next phase of development of a powered AGM-154C variant, also known the Joint Stand-Off Weapon Extended Range, or JSOW-ER.
http://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/20446/jassm-is-grabbing-headlines-but-the-navys-own-stealthy-weapon-is-set-to-get-way-more-capable
