Raytheon has received a contract from the U.S. Army's Aviation Missile Command to develop and deliver a next-generation guidance section for Joint Air-to-Ground Missile (JAGM) continued technology development (CTD). During the first four months of CTD, Raytheon will update its design and complete a delta preliminary design review. During the next 24 months, the team will focus on a critical design review, guidance section qualification and testing, and delivery of JAGM guidance sections.

CTD will culminate with U.S. Army integration of Raytheon JAGM guidance sections to currently qualified and fielded missile components, including the warhead, rocket motor and control actuation system. The total value of both contract phases is approximately $65 million.

The Raytheon team will leverage its low-cost, proven, uncooled tri-mode seeker now in development for the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Navy Small Diameter Bomb II (SDB II) program.

"Our state-of-the-art seeker is a compelling technology because it offers our warfighters a new, game-changing capability - hitting moving targets in all weather conditions. As our SDB II production contracts reflect, we can meet or exceed the performance demanded to outpace future threats for unit costs comparable to current weapons," said Tom Bussing, vice president of Advanced Missile Systems at Raytheon Missile Systems. "With our JAGM solution, capabilities will grow, but costs will not."

Based on current schedules, Raytheon's SDB II tri-mode seeker will be in its second year of production by the time JAGM CTD concludes. Because JAGM's seeker head has a high level of commonality with the SDB II seeker head, the JAGM program can potentially take advantage of some of the qualification testing already accomplished with SDB II. That could reduce risk and cost for JAGM CTD.