ORLANDO, FL, November 17th, 1998 -- Lockheed Martin's Joint Air-to- Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM) program swept into its development phase November 9, when DoD acquisition chief Jacques Gansler signed an Acquisition Decision Memorandum authorizing the transition. A $132.8 million contract increase for the 40-month Engineering and Manufacturing Development (EMD) phase was awarded to Lockheed Martin Integrated Systems November 10. Production is slated to begin in January 2001. The Air Force and Navy selected Lockheed Martin Integrated Systems (LMIS) in April to develop and build the JASSM system. Since winning this key competition, Lockheed Martin has achieved several challenging milestones to complete the JASSM Program Definition and Risk Reduction Phase (PDRR) on cost, and on schedule.

* In August, the program successfully completed a series of catapult assisted launches and arrested landing flight tests on a F/A-18C at the Naval Air Warfare Development Center, Patuxent River, Maryland. This was part of an overall program to ensure the system fully meets highly demanding performance conditions for aircraft carrier operations. A pre-production Instrumented Measurement Vehicle (IMV) was utilized, containing structural components representative of the final JASSM vehicle. In a subsequent letter of appreciation, the Navy called the tests "a stunning success," noting that the conditions of catapult launches and arrests are "the most severe environments that any weapon and its internal components must withstand." * In early October, the customer/industry team met at Lockheed Martin's Pike County Operations facility in Troy, Alabama, where JASSM will be built, for a Production Readiness Review. The plant will be actively involved in EMD since units tested during initial developmental and operational tests require production representation hardware. Pike County Operations is an award-winning facility, named by Industry Week magazine as one of the ten top industrial plants in the U.S.

JASSM's second successful Jettison Test Vehicle (JTV) launch test occurred at the Eglin Air Force Base (Fla.) Test Range October 14. All release conditions were met, resulting in a successful separation and predicted flight profile.

* Subcontractor Raytheon Systems Company C3I Communications of El Segundo, Calif. delivered the first prototype JASSM Anti-jam Global Positioning System Receiver (JAGR) on October 21. The system, whose design has seen extensive testing on the TSSAM and Tomahawk missile programs, is endorsed by the Defense Science Board as providing the best anti-jam performance against known threats. The unhindered use of GPS satellites for guidance is key to the successful performance of JASSM's mission.* A Destruct Ring Assembly (DRA) qualification performance functional test was successfully conducted October 27-28 by sub-contractor Teledyne Ryan at White Sands Missile Range. Three assemblies were tested and exceeded requirements at hot, cold and ambient temperatures.