AGM-169 Joint Common Missile

AGM-169 Joint Common Missile hell hound

The AGM-169 Joint Common Missile (JCM) was a tactical air-to-surface missile developed by the Lockheed Martin corporation from the United States.

Overview

The missile was designed to replace the AGM-114 Hellfire and AGM-65 Maverick. Its seeker head used a revolutionary combination of semi-active laser guidance, millimeter wave guidance, and IR guidance similar to that found on the FGM-148 Javelin anti-tank missile. This allows the missile to have a greater fire and forget capability, and to operate off all current air platforms. In addition to this, the missile has longer range, a more potent warhead, and a "safing" system which allows naval aircraft to return to ship without jettisoning the munitions.

This missile also shares similarities to the MBDA Brimstone missile.

Development

The development of the missile was first halted in December 2004. The program was on schedule and within its budget at that time, according to Lockheed Martin. However, due to the constraints of the war in Iraq, funding was cut. In 2005 and 2006, Congress began looking into reviving the program when it was found that modernizing the Hellfire would yield higher costs and reduced capability.

The JCM is the first missile to reach milestone B decision without a live test.
The JCM has been test flown on the AH-64D in a captive test configuration.

In May 2007 the U.S. Army formally brought the program to a close and requested that Lockheed Martin cease all development work. It is expected that a follow on program, the Joint Air to Ground Missile (JAGM) will be opened to competitive tender