AGM-154 Joint Standoff Weapon

Contractor: Raytheon Co.

Service: Joint

Date Deployed: January 1999

Length: 160 inches

Diameter: 13 inches

Wingspan: 106 inches

Weight: 1,065

Range: Low-altitude, 12 nautical miles; high-altitude, 63 nautical miles.

Guidance System: GPS/INS (Global Position/Inertial), Terminal IR Seeker (AGM-154C unique)

Platforms: Navy: F/A-18 C/D, F/A-18 E/F, AV-8B, F-35. Air Force: F-16 Block 40/50, B-1, B-2, B-52, F-15, F-117, A-10, F-35A.

Warhead: AGM-154A/145 BLU-97 combined-effects bomblets; AGM-154A-1, 500-pound BLU-111 warhead; AGM-154B, six P3I BLU-108 sensor-fuzed-weapon submunitions; AGM-154C, Broach multi-stage warhead.

The AGM-154 Joint Standoff Weapon (JSOW) precision strike weapon, manufactured by Raytheon Company, is a 1,000-pound air-to-surface missile that can carry several different lethal packages. The weapon’s standoff range of 12 to 63 nautical miles allows JSOW to remain outside the threat envelopes of enemy point defenses while effectively engaging and destroying targets. JSOW is integrated and in operational status on the F/A-18C/D/E/F, F-16, B-52, F-15E, B-1B and B-2 aircraft. Integration is underway on the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. It is a joint Navy-Air Force program, with the Navy as the lead service.

The JSOW family currently consists of four weapon variants. The AGM-154A or “Baseline” configuration carries 145 BLU-97 submunitions and is used to attack fixed and relocateable soft targets such as parked and revetted aircraft, trucks, armored personnel carriers and surface-to-air missile sites. The AGM-154A was employed by Navy F/A-18s against targets in Afghanistan during Operation Enduring Freedom and in Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom. More than 400 AGM-154As have been used in combat. A modified version of the AGM-154A, termed AGM-154A-1, includes the basic JSOW-A capability with a BLU-111 warhead in lieu of the BLU-97 submunitions.

The AGM-154A-1 is nearing completion of development by Raytheon. Production of AGM-154A-1 and AGM-154C began in 2006 to support foreign military sales (FMS). The AGM-154B has six BLU-108B/B canisters. Each dispenses four anti-armor submunitions and provides effectiveness against mobile area targets such as battle tanks, self-propelled artillery, wheeled or tracked armored personnel carriers and light to heavy support vehicles. Development of AGM-154B is complete and production has been deferred. The AGM-154C variant incorporates a 500-pound blast/fragmentation/penetrator warhead effective against fixed-point targets such as industrial facilities, logistical systems and hardened tactical targets. The AGM-154C incorporates an uncooled, long-wave imaging infrared seeker with autonomous target acquisition algorithms for precise targeting.

The AGM-154C was approved for full-rate production in December 2004. Initial operational capability was achieved in February 2005. Integration of a weapon data link and updated seeker software algorithms (termed AGM-154C-1 variant) began in fiscal year 2006 to provide a capability against at-sea moving/relocateable targets in fiscal 2010.