By Ann Roosevelt

A Lockheed Martin [LMT] official says the success of the Hellfire missile will generate production of thousands more of the missiles once the president’s budget and supplemental come to fruition.

“We’ll be going under contract for in excess of 10,000 missiles in the coming year, and with that we’ll be further addressing some of the things that have obsolesce issues that have to be improved,” Rick Edwards Lockheed Martin Vice President-Tactical Missiles, said in a teleconference yesterday. “This really is a living product that is continually improved and enhanced as we get feedback from the customer in the field.

Army and Lockheed Martin Hellfire program officials gathered in Orlando, Fla., yesterday to mark the delivery of the 20,000th Hellfire missile. They held a teleconference after the ceremonies.

Brig. Gen. Genaro Dellarocco, Army Missiles and Space Program Executive Officer, said delivery of the 20,000th missile is a “milestone for an Army weapon systems that is used jointly every day in the global war on terrorism, it’s the Hellfire II program, produced by Lockheed Martin and it really illustrates a great relationship between industry and the government in delivering a capability to our soldiers, sailors and marines that has been saving lives and taking the fight to the enemy.”

Edwards said, “We designed Hellfire as an anti-tank weapon many years ago and because it had some great capability we were able to work with the customer to put in different payloads, different warheads, and now you see it as a very effective weapon in close urban conflicts, where precision to hit the target, the pilot knows exac what he’s going to hit, we can contain the damage to the intended part of the target.”

Army Chief Warrant Officer-3 Doug Sanders, an Apache instructor pilot, said, “The bottom line is Hellfire, in the fight that we’re making–and I personally can only speak to the Iraqi theater–has allowed us to make engagements that otherwise we might not be able to make.”

Increased standoff equals aircrew survivability, Sanders said. And the precision guided aspect of the missile minimizes collateral damage. A pilot knows he will only hit the target. Hellfire is reliable, as well.

“We have great faith in the system and we know when we pull the trigger that Hellfire is going to hit.”

While in a combat unit, Sanders related one instance when they were south of Baghdad supporting troops that were ambushed. The enemy took cover in a civilian structure.

After developing the situation and a Kilo-model Hellfire engaged the portion of the building where the enemy was firing. The enemy were destroyed, but not the structure.

What they didn’t know at the time was that there were a “significant” number of women and children in the structure, Sanders said. “They came out unharmed because we didn’t have to level the building in order to get the enemy and I personally think that was because of Hellfire.”

Edwards said Lockheed Martin is “proud we’ve been able change this weapon over time, to be relevant in the fight that we have today. So what was originally designed as a weapon for large-scale armor engagements, now is equally as effective with different warheads and different modernization of the technology in a lot of close weapons. And it’s not only an Army weapon, it has truly become a weapon of choice across a lot of platforms.”

The Air Force uses Hellfire on Predator unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), the Marines fire it from Cobra helicopters and the Navy uses it on several platforms.

In 1995, the development contract for the Hellfire II modular missile system was signed with the first delivery coming in 1995. Since then, the Lockheed Martin Hellfire team has worked with warfighters to respond to their evolving needs, addressing changing operational environments in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Col. Mike Cantor, Army Joint Attack Munition Systems project manager, said, “Basically what we’ve done with the Hellfire is we’ve morphed it to deal with the threats that we are seeing in theater.”

Hellfire now comes with in the Mike model, which replaces the high explosive anti-tank warhead with a blast fragmentation warhead, Cantor said.. The N-model Hellfire has a metal augmented charge, which President Bush called “thermobaric.” It deals with those in structures, caves and “spider holes.” A K2A model has a sleeve over the high-explosive anti-tank variant that gives it a fragmentation capability.

The P-model missile can be shot from a UAV as well as a rotorcraft, he said. “The P+ is our future, that will be fielded in the ’09 time frame, and that will be the system that we bring forward for the Hellfire starting in that time frame and all variants will P+ in the future.”

All services buy the different variants, he said.

P+ is a modification primarily for obsolescence issues, providing better internal components, such as the inernal measurement unit that enables the missile to be fired from UAV or rotary wing platforms.

Additionally, the Army will modify 200 Hellfire missiles into the P configuration to support the Warrior UAV.

The P variant is the same as those the Air Force fires from Predator UAV. They will be ready in time for Warrior fielding next summer.

Considering the missile, Sanders said, “Never missed in combat with a Hellfire, but it’s not because I’m so great!”