The US Air Force has awarded Lockheed Martin an $825.97-million contract modification covering additional Long-Range Anti-Ship Missiles and Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missiles. The modification raises the cumulative face value of the contract from $9.64 billion to approximately $10.46 billion. Work will be carried out in Orlando, Florida, with completion scheduled for July 31, 2030.The programme will be funded through fiscal 2024–2026 appropriations covering missile and weapons procurement, research and development, and operations and maintenance. The modification also includes $11.1 million in Foreign Military Sales funding.The order comes as the US Air Force considers a major expansion in production of both missile families. Plans could involve procurement of as many as 11,200 JASSM and LRASM missiles across Lots 27–33 and 13–19 over the next five to seven years. That would represent an average production rate exceeding 1,000 missiles annually, substantially above the FY2025 procurement levels of 450 JASSMs and 115 LRASMs.The increased demand follows extensive reported use of JASSM during the conflict with Iran. The JASSM-ER can engage targets beyond 500 nautical miles and carries a 992-pound/450-kg warhead designed for penetrating air-defence networks and attacking hardened targets. A CSIS report dated April 21 stated that US forces used more than 1,000 JASSMs, primarily AGM-158B JASSM-ERs, against Iranian targets, making it the most frequently used offensive munition in that campaign, ahead of Tomahawk.Bloomberg reported that JASSM stocks were shifted from reserves intended for other theatres, including the Pacific, to US Central Command and Europe. This reportedly reduced the number of JASSM-ER missiles available for other regions to about 425 from a pre-war inventory of roughly 2,300.LRASM, designated AGM-158C, is derived from the JASSM-ER AGM-158B. Both share major design elements, including the low-observable airframe, Williams F107 turbofan, wings, tail assembly, fuel system and several avionics and manufacturing processes. Both use a 992-pound penetrating blast-fragmentation warhead.JASSM employs GPS-assisted inertial navigation and an imaging infrared seeker for fixed land targets. LRASM adds passive RF sensing, an infrared seeker, two-way data connectivity and autonomous targeting functions to attack maritime targets, including in GPS-denied conditions. Although the Pentagon has not confirmed LRASM use during the Iran campaign, the weapon remains important to US Indo-Pacific planning. In June, the Air Force demonstrated B-2 integration with LRASM during Exercise Valiant Shield 2026 in a live-fire engagement against a decommissioned ship.
