As the U.S. Air Force prepares for a critical set of flight-tests to gauge the reliability of retrofits on the Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM), production on the Lockheed Martin assembly line is hampered.

“There will be a production gap,” says David Van Buren, assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition. Continued production funding has been placed on hold pending the outcome of 16 lot acceptance flight-tests of the stealthy cruise missile. Van Buren says those key trials are slated to begin in the next month. Officials now say this will be for Lot 7.

Lockheed produces the missile at its Troy, Ala., facility. The U.S. Missile Defense Agency/U.S. Army Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) anti-ballistic missile interceptor also is produced there.

Some JASSM production line workers could be reassigned to other tasks in Troy, Van Buren told reporters during a roundtable at the Pentagon Aug. 27. However, he says that work continues manufacturing missiles for the development program, including the JASSM-ER (extended range) variant. The baseline JASSM is designed for 200 nautical mile standoff — and this model is in production — while the developmental JASSM-ER can fly 500 miles. The total program is supposed to develop and buy 4,900 missiles and is estimated to be worth $7.1 billion.

“It is not as though the whole facility is reliant on the JASSM missile,” Van Buren said. “Some of these people that might have been redeployed from the JASSM building to other buildings located in the facility would … come back and continue to work JASSM production once it is deemed acceptable to proceed.”

Lockheed officials say no employees have yet been reassigned from the JASSM program. “The expected production gap has had no impact on the company, as employees are working on Lockheed-funded JASSM retrofits.” These include improvements to earlier lots that were found to be less reliable than desired.

Van Buren says he is not worried that skills will atrophy during this production halt. “A lot of that competency is being retained,” he says. “I think that Lockheed is proceeding in an appropriate fashion.”

Work on failure reviews over recent missile tests that went awry has been going on for months, but Van Buren says the research has provided a “high confidence” that the upcoming lot acceptance tests will produce improved reliability.

The last round of similar tests yielded a 40 percent failure rate. For all baseline JASSMs fired to date, the reliability has been 79.2 percent. The goal is to reach 90 percent by Lot 11 (Aerospace DAILY, Aug. 26).

Production funding is being withheld for Lot 8.

Photo: Lockheed Martin