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Air Force may ax missile program

The Air Force may kill the Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile program in the wake of failed tests, the Air Force’s assistant acquisition secretary said May 17.

“Termination is one of the things on the table for that program,” Sue Payton said. “But I think there are some options there.”

Three of the four missiles tested in Utah between April 30 and May 1 missed their targets by more than 200 feet after losing contact with GPS satellites, she said. The fourth reached the target but did not detonate due to fuse problems.

The Air Force is working with the Joint Staff to determine the next move on the program, which she called “relevant and needed.” The Joint Staff is to determine whether these problems are fixable and announce the program’s fate within 30 days.

The $5.8 billion program has seen costs increase more than 25 percent, Air Force officials told Congress last month, putting it in violation of Nunn-McCurdy price-inflation caps. The addition of an “extended range” element to the JASSM program was a big factor in the ballooning costs, Payton said.

The Lockheed Martin weapon is designed to destroy well-defended targets from a long distance, keeping aircrews safe from an enemy’s anti-aircraft measures. Should JASSM be terminated, the Navy’s Standoff Land-Attack Missile Expanded Response, a Boeing-built over-the-horizon all-weather precision strike missile, is in the wings as an alternative.

At a Capitol Hill breakfast, Payton also highlighted the Air Force’s five top acquisition programs: the KC-X tanker, the CSAR-X combat search and rescue helicopter, the TSAT space communications system, the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and a next-generation long-range bomber. But she refused to comment on tankers or the contentious CSAR-X program, citing restrictions by the Procurement Integrity Act. Requests for proposals are out on both programs, with the original contract award for CSAR-X under protest.

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Air Force may ax missile program