Raytheon Co. submitted its proposal for the U.S. Army and Navy's Joint Air-to-Ground Missile competition and responded as a prime contractor. Raytheon is teamed with The Boeing Co. for the JAGM program. Raytheon and Boeing have proven capabilities that were showcased in the JAGM technology demonstration phase. The team enters the competition with an unmatched 3-for-3 record of success in the contractually required guided test vehicle flights. One of the reasons for the team's success is the use of a proven, tri-mode seeker incorporating semiactive laser, uncooled imaging infrared and millimeter-wave guidance.
"Instead of cobbling together bits and pieces of hardware from legacy programs, we offer a fully integrated tri-mode seeker that provides an exceptionally reliable, low-risk path to engineering and manufacturing development," said Bob Francois, Raytheon Vice President of Advanced Missiles and Unmanned Systems. "Rather than complicating matters by using a cooled seeker, we worked in close concert with our customers to determine smarter and simpler ways to arrive at a superior system solution. The uncooled seeker on the Raytheon-Boeing JAGM is just one example of that, and our overall system solution integrates targeting information from powerful aircraft onboard sensors with our advanced seeker to provide exceptional capability."
In addition to achieving a 3-for-3 success rate in government-funded testing, the Raytheon-Boeing team also went 3-for-3 in company-funded testing. Boeing executives attribute part of that success to the team's use of production-ready hardware. "The team demonstrated that it is possible to give the warfighter a single rocket motor solution capable of withstanding the rigors of fixed- and rotary-wing flight," said Carl Avila, Director of Boeing's Advanced Weapons and Missile Systems. "A single rocket motor and uncooled tri-mode seeker provide improved reliability and simplified logistics, while saving the taxpayer money over the life of the program."