Lockheed Martin [LMT] expects to perform a critical design review (CDR) this year for the new FMU-162/B Electronic Safe and Arm Fuse (ESAF) on its Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM), according to a company program manager.
Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control Strike Systems Program Director Alan Jackson said recently the company is performing engineering development for ESAF as a replacement for the electro-mechanical fuses currently used on JASSM. Jackson said Lockheed Martin should have completed ESAF design and have it fully qualified and ready for production by 2015.
“We are in prototype testing now and expect to have all the data we need to do a critical design review this year,” Jackson said.
The ESAF takes advantage of advances in fuse technology and is intended to be a more reliable fuse with the same capabilities as the baseline mechanical fuse, the Defense Department’s director, operational test & evaluation (DOT&E) office said in its fiscal 2012 annual report to Congress. DOT&E said the ESAF is being developed as an option for the JASSM baseline and the extended range (JASSM-ER) variants. L-3 Communications [LLL] is working with Lockheed Martin on the ESAF, according to Lockheed Martin spokeswoman Melissa Hilliard.
Jackson said the new ESAF, as a solid state electronic device, won’t have moving parts. Current mechanical fuses used on JASSM have moving parts. Lockheed Martin and the Air Force are working together on the ESAF, according to DOT&E.
“It should be more reliable, it should be cheaper and it should be 100 percent testable without expending the device,” Jackson said.
JASSM, a $6 billion cruise missile program, came close to being canceled in 2009 after years of test failures where the weapon failed to detonate on impact. Jackson said the problem was with a harness cable that prohibited the fuse from arming and detonating with the root cause being a workmanship error at one of Lockheed Martin’s cable manufacturers.
Jackson said the company changed the fuse design, using pre-formed cable wiring to eliminate a couple of manual processes that involved cutting and splicing wires together.
“Essentially, take the person out of the loop, unless they necessarily have to be there,” Jackson said.
Since the new cable design was implemented in 2009, Jackson said JASSM has had 51 flight test successes in 54 events—a success rate of 94 percent. The Air Force was seeking a success rate of 90 percent by 2013.
Jackson said Lockheed Martin found the cables “much more reliable” after the new process was implemented. Jackson said it was the new harness cable design that the company proved out in its recent Lot 6 Reliability Assessment Program (RAP) flight tests. Jackson added Lot 7 through Lot 10 of JASSM production received the new cable design as they were being built, so retrofit was unnecessary.
Lockheed Martin is also in the low-rate initial production (LRIP) phase for JASSM-ER, according to Jackson, who said the Lot 9 and Lot 10 contracts for JASSM also include 30 extended range variants of the missile for each lot. Jackson said operational test flights for JASSM-ER were completed last year and the company awaits the Air Force Operational Test and Evaluation Center’s (AFOTEC) public release of the test report.