The U.S. Marine Corps deployed a Joint Air-to-Ground Missile, built by Lockheed Martin, from an AH-1Z attack helicopter during a recent operational test series held off the Florida coast.
USMC pilots targeted and hit moving boats up to seven kilometers away from Eglin Air Force Base with the use of the missile equipped with a seeker technology, Naval Air Systems Command said Monday.
The JAGM’s seeker consists of semi-active laser guidance and millimeter-wave sensing systems. Marines plans to further test the missile via land-based tests at Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona.
Lockheed won a $66.3 million engineering and manufacturing development contract in August 2015 to provide engineering and manufacturing development services to the program and received Milestone C decision from the Department of Defense in June 2018.
The Bethesda, Maryland-based contractor is tasked with producing, testing and integrating the missile on the Army’s AH-64E Apache and USMC’s AH-1Z Viper.
Military officials expect JAGM to reach the full-rate production phase sometime in 2022.