The media reported that Ukraine could receive AGM-158 JASSM air-launched cruise missiles from the United States for use with F-16 aircraft. At the same time, it has been reported that the process of transferring such missiles to the Armed Forces of Ukraine may take several months, although a political decision may be announced as early as this fall.
There was information that the United States was considering adapting Soviet aircraft in the Armed Forces of Ukraine to the AGM-158 missiles. But there is no detailed information on the outcome of this experiment.
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The question arises as to whether there have already been episodes of combat use of the AGM-158 JASSM in real combat operations, and how long it may take to adapt certain combat aircraft to this type of cruise missile.
At first, deliveries of serial AGM-158 JASSM cruise missiles to the US Air Force began only in 2014. Therefore, the combat use of this type of missiles is currently limited to only two episodes. The number of missiles used barely exceeds two dozen.
The first episode was in April 2018. Then the United States, together with the United Kingdom and France, launched a massive missile strike on the chemical weapons production sites of the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria. It is known that 19 AGM-158A missiles were launched at that episode. The carrier was a B-1B Lancer heavy bomber (one bomber of this type can carry up to 24 cruise missiles of this type).
The second and so far the last episode took place in October 2019. Then the US destroyed the hideout of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, one of the leaders of ISIS in Syria. Several JASSM-ER missiles were used for this strike. But so far, these are all known episodes of AGM-158 combat use.
It is also worth emphasizing the following important point: this is not a missile that can be attached to any US-made combat aircraft, even if at first glance it looks like it. Moreover, there is publicly available data that suggests that tactical aircraft such as F-15, F-16, and F/A-18 can be used as carriers of such cruise missiles, each can carry two JASSMs.
In fact, apart from the US Air Force, only Poland, Australia, and Finland have AGM-158 missiles. The Finnish F/A-18 Hornet aircraft were adapted to JASSM as part of the modernization of these aircraft to the MLU standard, which took place in 2010-2016.
Only in the fall of 2022 the US Air Force announced that it had managed to adapt their old F-16 Block 30 fighters to launch JASSM missiles. This emphasizes that in the case of the F-16, the Armed Forces of Ukraine may also have technical issues with the use of long-range AGM-158 missiles from these aircraft.
Earlier Defense Express reported that the United States was "Close to Agreement" on JASSM for Ukraine, allowing strikes deep in russia.
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