By Geoff Fein
ATK‘s [ATK], the U.S. Navy and the Italian Air Force successfully launched and scored a direct hit on a simulated enemy air defense target during the final development test (DT) firing of the AGM-88E Advanced Anti-Radiation Guided Missile (AARGM) at Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake on Aug. 7, the company reported yesterday.
It’s an incredibly important milestone, Jack Cronin, president, ATK mission systems, told Defense Daily yesterday.
“It means we have shown our ability to deliver on contract one of the most complex development programs in the history of the industry,” he said. “It really does put us in a very new place as a missile developer and a missile execution contractor.”
For ATK, getting into production and having the ability to provide this real vital capability is really exciting, Cronin said. “This is the only ACAT 1 weapon development in the Navy today.”
“For us, we have thresholds that we have in our contract–acquisition program baseline gates,” he explained. “We completed all of our gates within the original contract threshold and it’s something that I don’t know of any other company has done on an ACAT 1 very complex development program.”
The final AARGM DT shot was launched from a Navy FA-18C Hornet in a scenario designed to test the missile’s capabilities to maneuver and perform in a short time-of-flight profile under heavily counter-measured conditions, ATK said.
During missile flight, AARGM successfully detected, identified, and located an enemy air defense unit (ADU) using its anti-radiation-homing (ARH) receiver. Additionally the missile demonstrated its designed ability to minimize collateral damage and friendly fire by navigating clear of pre-planned impact avoidance zones. In the terminal phase, AARGM used its multi-mode sensor suite to overcome advanced target countermeasures, accurately guiding towards and directly hitting the enemy ADU target, the company added.
The firing was the eighth and final developmental missile shot in AARGM’s System Development and Demonstration (SDD) phase.
“Our focus right now is on production,” Cronin said. “We have two customers, the U.S. and Italy, and understanding the dramatic improvement this missile has over its predecessor, the old HARM missile, we expect to have a substantially greater number of customers in the international market as well over the next couple of years.”
But the major focus is on ramping up production, Cronin stressed.
This test shot also marked the final firing in a month-long test series using the final missile hardware and software configuration intended for Navy Independent Operational Test and Evaluation (IOT&E), which is planned to commence later this year, according to ATK.
“This is the final configuration,” Cronin said.
The company will hand off AARGM to the Navy for operational testing and then certification that the missile meets the service’s requirements, he added.
The current missile configuration will be the first delivered software build and this is what ATK is delivering to the Navy in the missiles currently being delivered, Cronin noted.
“As we go forward what we hope to do is work with Navy to continuously keep this missile as the most modern electronic warfare missile in the world.”
The current production plan, according to Cronin, is 1,750 missile for the Navy, an additional 300 for the Italians and another 1,000 for foreign military sales..
“We are looking right now at either firm or planned orders of 3,000 missiles, domestic and international,” he said.
AARGM is a supersonic, air-launched tactical missile that will be integrated on the FA-18 C/D, FA-18 E/F, EA-18 G and Tornado ECR aircraft. The missile has designed compatibility with the F-35, EA-6B, and U.S. and Allied F-16s. AARGM’s advanced multi-sensor system includes a Millimeter Wave (MMW) terminal seeker, ARH receiver and Global Positioning System/Inertial Navigation System (GPS/INS) capable of rapidly engaging traditional and advanced enemy air defense threats as well as non-radar time-sensitive strike targets. The AARGM system, an upgrade to the U.S. Navy AGM-88 HARM system, is a U.S. and Italian international cooperative major acquisition program with the U.S. Navy as the executive agent. AARGM Low Rate Initial Production (LRIP) commenced in December 2008 with delivery of the first production missile to the Navy scheduled January 2010. Once fleet initial operational capability is established in November 2010, AARGM will be the only tactical extended-range, supersonic, multi-role strike weapon in U.S. and Italian inventory, according to ATK.