The State Department approved a possible $104 million Foreign Military Sale (FMS) of 50 AGM-158B/B-2 Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missiles with Extended Range (JASSM-ER) missiles.
The Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) notified Congress of the sale on Monday.
In addition to the 50 JASSM-ER missiles, the FMS also covers JASSM anti-jam Global Positioning System Receivers (JAGR), training missiles, missile containers, munitions support, repair/return support, spare parts, and other related technical and logistical support.
The primary contractor for this sale will be missile builder Lockheed Martin [LMT].
DSCA said Japan will use these missiles to help improve its “capability to meet current and future threats by providing stand-off capability via advanced, long-range strike systems for employment on Japan Air Self-Defense Force fighter aircraft.”
The agency said Japanese fighters that will use JASSM-ER include but are not limited to their fleet of F-15Js.
The U.S. Air Force currently has over 4,000 JASSMs, including JASSM-ERs. The service is seeking over $1.8 billion for more JASSM-ERs in the fiscal year 2024 budget request to keep buying the maximum production amount of 550 missiles annually (Defense Daily, June 1).
The Air Force budget level also seeks to help ramp up JASSM-ER production to push past 500 missiles per year.
Previously, last year the State Department approved an FMS to Germany that included 75 JASSM-ERs (Defense Daily, July 28, 2022).
Also that month, the State Department approved a $235 million sale of 80 JASSM-ER missiles to Australia (Defense Daily, July 21, 2022).