American defense giant Lockheed Martin, at a time when the U.S. Department of Defense is increasingly focusing on options for equipping the military with cheap mass-produced missiles, is now considering options for how to solve the cost problem of already existing weapons systems in other words, how to make cheaper versions of them.
This was stated to Breaking Defense by Lockheed Martin's President of Missiles and Fire Control, Tim Cahill. He emphasizes that the company's portfolio includes effective solutions such as JASSM (Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile) cruise missiles, which have already been tested on a number of different combat aircraft and can be retrofitted into a modular system that can be expanded or reduced.
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The idea is to take a JASSM missile or, for example, LRASM (which cost the American military alone anywhere from one and a half to three million dollars) and make them cheaper through solutions such as using less expensive guidance components, integrating 3D printing into production, or abandoning radar-absorbent coating.
At the same time, plans to create cheaper versions of JASSM missiles and others are currently essentially at the concept stage Cahill emphasizes that the company hasn't yet determined the final design or final approach.
Thus, Lockheed Martin, among other things, wants to maintain competitiveness in todays environment of attention to cheaper weapons samples and is looking, among other things, for options on how to offer the Pentagon more missiles for the same or even less money.
But Lockheed Martin is also following the current trend of developing miniature long-range cruise missiles, and this concerns their family of air-launched cruise missiles, the Common Multi-Mission Truck (CMMT): this includes the CMMT-D with a range of 800 km and the CMMT-X with a range of 650 km.
The price of one is declared at only $150,000. At the same time, it is clear that the warhead of such cruise missiles is significantly smaller compared to samples whose cost reaches millions of dollars.
Earlier, Defense Express reported that Denmark announced the main condition for purchasing weapons for its military, which is directly related to Ukraine.
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