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Subject: Joint Common Missile is cancelled
Professor Fickle    2/1/2005 4:52:28 PM
The JCM was to replace Air launched tow 2, hellfire, for helicopters and maverick missiles for USMC F?A-18 Hornets Specification Range >16 km Rotary Wing, >28 km Fixed Wing Guidance Tri-mode: MMW/I 2 R/SAL Warhead Multi-purpose shaped- charged/fragmentation Weight 108 lb (49 kg) Length 69.9 in (177.5 cm) Diameter 7 in (17.8 cm) Wingspan 12.8 in (32.5 cm Aerospace Daily & Defense Report Joint Common Missile's Demise Spurs 'Capability Needs' Study By Marc Selinger 01/05/2005 09:15:56 AM The U.S. Defense Department still seems interested in eventually developing a capability similar to the Joint Common Missile (JCM), despite a recent decision to kill the air-to-ground missile program. While revealing plans to terminate JCM, DOD's Program Budget Decision (PBD) No. 753 directs the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to "determine the capability needs" to equip fixed-wing tactical aircraft, rotary-wing aircraft and unmanned aerial vehicles with "precision, air-to-ground, close-air-support weapons." The study is due to be finished in time for a fiscal 2008 budget review. Canceling the Army-led JCM will save about $2.4 billion over the next six years, the PBD says. The PBD, approved Dec. 23 by Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz (DAILY, Jan. 4), contains a total of $30 billion in program cuts, part of a broader Bush Administration effort to curb federal spending. Lockheed Martin, JCM's prime contractor, said in a statement late Jan. 3 that it has not been officially notified of any changes to the JCM program. It also said the missile's development effort has been meeting all of its goals. In May 2004, Lockheed Martin was picked over Raytheon and Boeing-Northrop Grumman teams to conduct JCM's four-year system development and demonstration (SDD) phase, which was to be worth as much as $1.6 billion (DAILY, May 6). The Army, Marine Corps and Navy were planning to buy 54,000 missiles, which would have boosted the program's total value to $5 billion. JCM was designed to replace Lockheed Martin's Hellfire and Longbow missiles, used on the AH-64 Apache, AH-1Z Cobra and MH-60R Seahawk helicopters, and Raytheon-made Maverick missiles used on the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet fighter. Fielding of the new missile was scheduled to begin in FY '09. While DOD has declined to comment publicly on why it targeted JCM specifically, Steven Zaloga, an analyst at the Teal Group, told The DAILY Jan. 4 that several factors could have doomed the program, including the fact that the Hellfire and Longbow missiles still are relatively young.
 
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Professor Fickle    RE:Joint Common Missile is cancelled   3/17/2005 1:55:52 PM
their is more inforamation on JCM on this site March 15, 2005: The U.S. Army is canceling its JCM (Joint Common Missile) program, meant to develop a replacement for the Hellfire anti-tank missile. The 108 pound Hellfire , used by helicopters and UAVs, has been in service since 1985, and some 76,000 have been built. The JCM was becoming too expensive, and many officers believed that the existing Hellfire II and heavier (670 pound) Maverick and SDB (250 pound Small Diameter smart Bomb) covered all the missions the services need to handle. The demise of the JCM also spotlights the importance of the guidance systems for missiles, and the ease with which missiles can be upgraded with more effective electronics. The basic design of these older missiles is not likely to change any time soon, and any of the main components (structure, rocket motor, controls, warhead, guidance system) can be upgraded. While the idea of having a common air-to-surface anti-tank missile for all the services was attractive, it simply didn’t add up in the end. The navy and air force fighters can use a larger missile, and the Hellfire has gotten a new lease on life via use on small UAVs. JCM, while nice in theory, didn’t pan out in practice.
 
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HJ    RE:Joint Common Missile is cancelled   4/9/2005 11:00:37 PM
But the Fat lady has yet to sing...... PBD 753 cancelled JCM as part of OSD workup of POM06 that turned into President's Submit to Congress and we won't know what Congress decided to do with FY06 funding until late summer so JCM is not yet truly dead (V-22 lingered for years in this type limbo with OSD deleing funding and COngress adding it in). Meanwhile...last heard Lockheed Martin is still touting JCM successes... JOINT COMMON MISSILE SEEKER SUCCESSFULLY TRACKS TACTICAL TARGET VESSEL IN LITTORAL TESTING ORLANDO, FL, January 19, 2005 -- Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT] has demonstrated the further maturation of its Joint Common Missile (JCM) tri-mode seeker with the successful acquisition and track of a tactical littoral target in a test series conducted during December 2004 at Eglin Air Force Base, Ft. Walton Beach, FL. The tests, which involved 125 runs, showed the ability of the missile’s tri-mode seeker to acquire and track a Boghammar vessel moving at up to 30 knots at ranges of 1 to 6 kilometers. The Swedish Boghammar coastal patrol boat is representative of a typical, hostile patrol craft that war fighters would likely encounter in a littoral scenario. This test demonstrated simultaneous detection and processing by two of the missile’s three sensors: the imaging infra-red (I2R) and the millimeter wave radar (MMW)--integrated with the JCM’s inertial tracking capability. Target profiles included crossing, diagonal, inbound, outbound, rectangular racetrack, “turntable,” orbiting in small circles and evasive maneuvers (s-turns). The third sensor, the semi-active laser (SAL), gives the JCM precision-strike lethality, and its multi-purpose warhead, set to the blast fragmentation mode, would have enabled the missile to destroy the littoral target in a tactical situation. “JCM provides a capability that doesn’t exist today,” said Steve Barnoske, JCM program director at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control. “Through the Joint Capabilities Integration and Development System (JCIDS) process our joint services customers developed and validated the requirement for JCM. We know how important meeting those requirements is to our Navy and Marine Corps partners.” “This test versus the Boghammar, along with the previous tests during the coastal maneuvers, demonstrates that our JCM multimode seeker is effective against littoral targets,” Barnoske continued. “We are providing the best-performing, lowest-risk solution for our war fighters. Our JCM Phase 1 risk mitigation program is executing to the schedule and budget and achieving success in demonstrating performance.” JCM will replace the type of missiles that were expended during the current conflict, which include Hellfire, Longbow, Maverick and airborne TOW. Through technological advancements, JCM results in greatly enhanced warfighting capability at comparable costs to these missiles. The test series also collected exclusive “sea state” data in the Gulf of Mexico at levels 1 and 3, reflecting calm and rough seas, respectively. This test was one of numerous risk reduction tests that have significantly mitigated risk on the critical subsystems—tri-mode seeker, warhead, motor. These Boghammar tracking tests represent the second successful operation of the JCM seeker versus littoral targets. During a mock Marine Corps amphibious invasion near Eglin AFB in the fall of 2003, the seeker successfully acquired and tracked large ships and amphibious landing craft at day and night temperatures and at varying sea states. The JCM is a multi-target, multi-service weapon with fire-and-forget capability and precision-strike targeting that will increase crew survivability and minimize collateral damage. The single JCM missile will replace the Longbow, Hellfire and airborne TOW missiles for rotary-wing platforms and the Maverick missile for the F-18 attack-fighter that are presently in the United States armed forces’ inventory. The Lockheed Martin JCM builds on the heritage of the Hellfire missile family, which includes the Longbow millimeter wave missile, and the Javelin imaging infrared missile, all of which have been combat-proven in Afghanistan and Iraq, with well over a thousand rounds expended.
 
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Professor Fickle    But the Fat lady has yet to sing.....   1/7/2006 12:56:44 AM
Yeah!!! the fat lady did not sing... http://www.military.com/features/0,15240,84076,00.html?ESRC=eb.nl one industry source said that modifying the Hellfire missile line would prove more costly for the service than continuing development and eventual procurement of the JCM. Lockheed Martin, however, contends that the JCM program was not only on schedule for a four-year research, development, test and evaluation phase, but on target to deliver missiles for $120,000 each in the low-rate initial production phase I, $94,000 each in LRIP-II and less than $80,000 apiece during full-rate production. =-=-==- that try seaker kicks @$$
 
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Professor Fickle       9/12/2006 5:40:16 PM
 

Still alive and kicking!

 

http://www.military.com/features/0,15240,113134,00.html

 

Joint Common Missile Gets New Life

InsideDefense.com NewsStand | Ashley Roque | September 12, 2006

Dollars earmarked for a Joint Common Missile program will be included in the Army's long-term spending plan, covering fiscal years 2008 to 2013, when it is submitted to the office of the secretary of defense over the next few weeks, Lt. Gen. Jerry Sinn, the service's budget chief, told Inside the Army last week. However, it remains unclear if the other services will commit the necessary resources to revive the missile program.

“When we put this [program objective memorandum] together, we're going to fund it,” Sinn told ITA following a Sept. 7 breakfast sponsored by the Association of the U.S. Army's Institute for Land Warfare. The three-star added that in the “neighborhood” of $150 million would be included to fund the JCM program in FY-08.

Sinn's assertion to fund the program brings a glimmer of hope to a programmatic soap opera that has played out over the past year-and-a-half. But despite the Army's current position to support JCM development, it is unclear if it will be the sole service to forge ahead.

Last week, sister publication Inside the Navy reported that the Navy has not included JCM funding in its POM-08 request, according to Lt. Cmdr. Anthony “Gretzky” Wright, the air-to-ground weapons requirements officer for the office of the chief of naval operations.

Designed as a next-generation, multipurpose replacement for Hellfire, Longbow Hellfire and Maverick air-to-ground missiles, JCM was slated for termination by the Defense Department in program budget decision No. 753, issued in December 2004.

Once the termination order was handed down, a series of events were set into motion -- the Army kept the program afloat by slowing down the expenditure of funds; lawmakers rallied to keep the program alive by adding funds into the Army's and Navy's FY-06 budgets for missile development; and the Joint Staff revalidated the JCM requirement.

With the requirement revalidated, it is now time to look at how to proceed with a joint program -- a decision that has not been made, Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Edmund Giambastiani said last week.

“The services have come in and we have all gotten together and we have a requirement for this missile and we need the capability it brings,” Giambastiani told ITA Sept. 5 at the Marine Corps Association and the U.S. Naval Institute Defense Forum Washington.

“The missile program has had some problems in the past so it is not just a requirements issue, it is a funding issue and it's an acquisition issue. We're told that most of the technology risk levels have gone to a high enough point where it appears as though, when properly funded, that the program with good management could move forward. But those decisions haven't been made yet,” the four-star admiral added.

Giambastiani's statement about JCM technology readiness again touched on a contingent issue that surfaced after PBD 753 was issued -- the program's health.

In March 2005, Vice Adm. Stanley Szemborski, principal deputy director of the Pentagon's program analysis and evaluation directorate, told lawmakers that an independent estimate of the program concluded that costs would “dramatically” increase.

JCM prime contractor Lockheed Martin, however, contends that the JCM program was not only on schedule for a four-year RDT&E phase, but on target to deliver each missile at a unit cost of $120,000 in the low-rate initial production I phase, $94,000 in LRIP-II and $80,000 during full-rate production.

JCM was being designed to be fired from the Army AH-64D Apache helicopter, the Marine Corps AH-1Z Cobra helicopter, the Navy's F/A-18E/F tactical fighter and the special operations MH-60R Pave Hawk helicopter.

In PBD No. 753, signed Dec. 23 by then-Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, the Pentagon cut $2.3 billion in JCM funding allocated to complete development and buy 2,134 missiles. The Army's share was $928 million, the Navy's $1.5 billion.

Additionally, the memorandum instructed the Defense Department to “determine the capability needs to equip fixed-wing tactical aircraft, rotary-winged and unmanned air vehicles with precision air-to ground close air support weapons by the FY-08 [through] FY-13 Program/Budget Review.”

Sinn told ITA last week that the Defense Department has looked at an alternative solution to a JCM but it would cost the

 
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Jackie    Joint Common Missile   2/5/2008 5:23:10 PM
Professor Finkle,

I'm doing research in the tactical missile market and would find your knowledge and views on the subject very helpful. Would it be possible to contact you and have a brief discussion on the topic?

Thank you,

Jackie Rocca

 
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dwightlooi       3/14/2008 2:21:09 AM
The JCM is now officially dead after spending two years on life support. However, it has also been reincarnated in essentially the same form as the JAGM -- Joint Air-to-Ground Missile. Same 7" 120 pound class airframe. Same objectives and applications -- ground, helo and jet launched. Same tri-band "super" seeker head -- Semi-active laser, Millimeter Wave Radar and Imaging Infrared with GPS-Inertial mid-course autopilot all packed into it's head. Same 20km nominal range. The ONLY thing that seems to have changed is the developmental timescale to better fit the services' budgetary plans.



 
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dwightlooi       3/14/2008 2:22:10 AM
 
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dwightlooi       3/14/2008 2:22:47 AM
h*ttp://www.raytheon.com/media/ausa07/docs/factsheets/jagm.pdf
 
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