Troy Messenger March 19, 2005
JCM project under the gun
By Ken Rogers, The Messenger
The Joint Common Missile, a program targeted for termination in the Department of Defense budget, proceeds ahead of schedule, under budget - and under the gun.
Canceling the JCM contract, awarded last May to Lockheed Martin, would save the DOD more than $2.3 billion over six years. However, the range, versatility and accuracy of the missile has led some in the Pentagon - not to mention Lockheed officials and Alabama's Congressional delegation - to call for a closer look at the project.
A closer look may be all it takes to restore funding for the JCM, which would be built in Troy and central Florida.
"Recent tests demonstrate the missile very accurately puts the warhead on the intended target," said Rick Edwards, director of Tactical Missiles at Lockheed Martin. "It prevents a lot of collateral damage. This accuracy will make it very effective in congested areas - like an urban setting where there are a lot of other buildings around."
The JCM is the next-generation, multi-purpose, air-to-ground precision missile that will replace Hellfire, Longbow, Maverick and airborne TOW missiles in the U.S. arsenal.
It is also the first program to be approved by the Joint Requirements Oversight Committee under the new Joint capabilities Integration and Development System (JCIDS) process.
The weapon is to be used jointly by the Army, Navy and Marine Corps. It is designed to be fired from the Army AH-64D Apache, the Marine Corps AH-1Z Cobra, the Navy's F/A-18E/F and the special operations MH-60R Pave Hawk.
Edwards insisted nothing in the testing data suggests budget problems or delivery delays. However, the Office of the Secretary of Defense recently told Congress that it estimated JCM's development would take at least two more years than the four years the Army had projected. OSD also predicted that development and production costs would exceed the Army's $5 billion estimate by well more than $1 billion.
In a prepared statement for the March 3 House Armed Services tactical air and land subcommittee meeting, Vice Adm. Stanley Szemborski said the analysis projected that the anticipated four-year development phase would take at least six years, and it predicted "costs for procurement and [research, development, test and evaluation] that were 20 percent and 39 percent higher" than the service's.
Lockheed Martin, however, contends that the JCM program was not only on schedule for a four-year RDT&E phase, but on target to deliver each missile for $120,000 in the low-rate initial production I phase, each missile for $94,000 in LRIP-II and each missile for less than $80,000 during full-rate production.
"They chose not to use the Army's estimates," Edwards said.
He said the fact JCM is perceived as a new program probably made it easier to cut. But he added that because Lockheed Martin had spent $60 million designing the missile before it was developed, and its subcontractors an additional $13 million, it is relatively far along.
"All the components have been tested; the tactical seekers have been built; simulation and software work is very mature," he said.
"I won't say that I agree with them," said Gen. Peter Schoomaker, Army chief of staff, "but I'm S looking at the decision."
Edwards disagreed with the assessment that JCM's capabilities can be met by existing programs.
"There are capability gaps that this system is specifically designed to fill," he said.
A recent test in front of Pentagon officials demonstrated JCM's ability to penetrate brick over block while keeping a warhead intact.
An upcoming test will demonstrated the range of the JCM, which is designed for 16 kilometers (10 miles) in helicopters. It is scheduled at White Sands (N.M.) in early May, Smith said.
"We're doing everything we can to deliver a product that gives our customer the most accurate, versatile and reliable system ever developed," Edwards said. "Having this system will severely restrict collateral damage, particularly in urban settings."
A tri-mode seeker - which uses a semi-active laser, imagining infrared and millimeter-wave radar - guides the missile. Those modes add to its accuracy in bad weather or poor visibility conditions.
"We believe we've done everything our customer asked us to do both prior to the award and after and we hope that the merits of this system are given an open hearing in Congress," Edwards said.
Certainly, there is support for the JCM in the Alabama Congressional delegation.
"The Joint Common Missile program is a low-risk, high-return system that must, without delay, be continued and restored to full authority," six members of the delegation wrote in a letter provided by Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala.
The $1.6 billion contract over four years was for development and two production batches or as many as 2,700 of 55,000 missiles, according to globalsecurity.org, the online site for military and defense analysts. The program could be worth as much as $5.5 billion over 20 years, company officials estimated when the contract was awarded.
"If the Joint Common Missile program is terminated, it would result in the loss of approximately 240 JCM jobs, which include manufacturing, government program management and subcontractors in Alabama, and/or the cancellation of plans to create another 200 positions during the program's production phase," said Jennifer Allen, Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control Media Relations Manager.
© Copyright 2005, Troy Messenger
