By Geoff Fein
Raytheon [RTN] is anticipating a Navy contract by the spring for the first production Joint Stand Off Weapon (JSOW) C-1 variant, which will enable the service to hit maritime moving targets, a company official said.
Because both sides are still negotiating terms of the contract, the company could not provide specifics as to the value of the contract or the quantity of JSOW C-1s the Navy plans to buy, Phyllis McEnroe, Raytheon’s program director for JSOW, told Defense Daily earlier this week.
The Navy is also testing a new Raytheon shaped-charge warhead that is being considered for the JSOW C-1, the company reported. The new warhead delivers the same effect as the one currently planned for the JSOW C-1, but at a reduced cost.
The Navy and Raytheon funded the demonstration and used proprietary warhead technology developed by Raytheon. It was the second demonstration of this technology on the JSOW; the first took place in late 2007, according to the company.
Additionally, Raytheon is looking to conduct its first free flight demonstration this spring of the follow on JSOW-Extended Range (ER), McEnroe added.
Raytheon’s JSOW-ER variant takes an existing Hamilton-Sundstrand [UTX] engine, currently used on the Miniature Air Launched Decoy (MALD), and incorporates it into a JSOW, McEnroe said.
Raytheon is working in parallel both the JSOW C-1 and JSOW-ER development, she added.
JSOW C-1 was developed courtesy of the savings realized from spiral development, McEnroe said.
“We had a significant cost savings program from Block I to Block II where we were able to cut out 33 percent of the cost of the weapon,” she said. “Based on that savings, we were able to fund the C-1 development program.”
McEnroe pointed out additional cost savings are achieved with JSOW C-1 because the Navy will be able to use one weapon for two missions, thus enabling economies of scale. And the JSOW casing itself does not change.
“What that does, it simplifies logistics,” McEnroe said. “JSOW is a truck…it maintains the same outer mold line…it makes integration into different platforms a lot less expensive. Instead of buying two weapons, you can buy one weapon and that will trickle down through all of your suppliers as you buy more quantities…it reduces the cost.”
JSOW C-1 will also have a data link that will enable the ability to pursue maritime moving targets, McEnroe said.
“Starting in FY ’09, the Navy will buy only C-1s,” she noted.
Whereas C-1 was a spiral of the Block II, JSOW-ER will be a spiral for C-1, McEnroe said.
JSOW-ER is not a program of record for the Navy, McEnroe said. “It is spiral off of the C-1 so it will minimize integration cost. It will give us capability of going 300 nautical miles, which takes us outside of any known or future threat we see happening.”
Raytheon is planning to do a free flight demonstration in spring ’09, she added.
Not to be outdone by the C-1 variant, Raytheon is taking advantage of existing programs to bring additional cost savings to JSOW-ER, McEnroe noted.
ER integrates the Miniature Air Launched Decoy (MALD) engine, which reduces cost by using an engine that already exists, she said. “You get the economies of scale by using the same engine another program is using.”
“Our TRL (Technology Readiness Level) is going to be very high because we are using parts that have already been proven out and existing,” McEnroe said. “It’s just a matter of integrating them into the JSOW truck.”
And because JSOW-ER is a spiral of the C-1 variant, there are minimal changes to the weapon’s electronics, software or mechanical systems, McEnroe said.
“If we had to put a percent on, we’d say maybe there is about a 10 percent swap out of parts. Really, it is very minimal,” she added.
The addition of an engine to JSOW will add weight to the platform, McEnroe said.
“It is a relatively small engine…25 pounds. We are compensating that because we are changing the payload, so we will compensate for that weapon within the JSOW structure,” she added.