The U.S. State Department has granted approval for a possible Foreign Military Sale to Japan involving Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missiles with Extended Range (JASSM-ER) and related equipment.
The sale is estimated to cost approximately $104 million, as announced by the Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) on August 28, 2023.
The DSCA statement read, “The State Department has made a determination approving a possible Foreign Military Sale to the Government of Japan of Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missiles with Extended Range (JASSM-ER) and related equipment for an estimated cost of $104 million.”
It also stated that Congress was notified of this potential sale on the same day.
According to the sales notice, Japan has requested to purchase up to fifty AGM-158B/B-2 JASSM-ER missiles, along with JASSM Anti-jam Global Positioning System Receivers (JAGR), training missiles, and missile containers.
The package also includes “munitions support and support equipment; spare parts, consumables, accessories, and repair/return support; integration and test support and equipment; personnel training and equipment; classified and unclassified software delivery and support; classified and unclassified publications and technical documentation; transportation support; U.S. Government and contractor engineering, technical, and logistics support services; studies and surveys; and other related elements of logistics and program support.”
The proposed sale aims to support the foreign policy and national security objectives of the United States. The notice stated, “This proposed sale will support the foreign policy goals and national security objectives of the United States by improving the security of a major ally that is a force for political stability and economic progress in the Indo-Pacific region.”
The procurement is intended to augment Japan’s defence capabilities against current and future threats, providing advanced long-range strike systems compatible with Japan Air Self-Defense Force (JASDF) aircraft, including the F-15J.
According to the notice, “The proposed sale will improve Japan’s capability to meet current and future threats by providing stand-off capability via advanced, long-range strike systems.”
A long-range strike capability is key against a peer enemy which I have mentioned many times on here over the past years.
Equally, a land-based option for the NSM/JSM would be a useful addition for the UK which could help the Marines secure a beachhead and protect an LZ in future conflicts abroad too.
https://photo.weaponsystems.net/image/s-carousel/n-ar_cds_nsm-mlv_p02.jpg/–/img/ws/ar_cds_nsm-mlv_p02.jpg
But have M270 and are upgrading that? That is a land based missile system that has worked well in Ukraine.
Adding MK41 VLS to T26 and T31 also does that – OK depending what you put into it.
And expanding numbers too, as well as upgrading.
Yes, we are upgrading the M270 which I assume will include all forty units that will be able to fire the Precision Strike Missile and Extended-Range GMLRS rockets which are still in development I beleive. We will be investing in the NSM so this could equally be put to very good use by the Royal Marines. “NMESIS is a centerpiece of the USMC’s Force Design 2030, which is centered around reorienting the Corps for a potential conflict in the Western Pacific. NMESIS will allow units such as Marine Littoral Regiments (MLR) to deny coastal areas and other key chokepoints to… Read more »
U.S. Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Cade Heller, an artillery cannoneer with Fox Battery, 2nd Battalion, 11th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, prepares a Navy/Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System to be fired at Naval Air Station Point Mugu, California, June 27, 2023. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Earik Barton)
https://www.navalnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/7918203-1024×683.jpg
NMESIS would be good, just park couple in t-26/31 mission bays or LPD/LSD / Argus instant long range land attack/antiship that can be moved from vessel to vessel 🙂
Hi Steve M, It’s certainly a very flexible option to have at your disposal!
We’re involved in the ER variants of the M31 GMLRS rockets that are used in the M270s we already have, and are an early customer for the Precision strike Missile (2025 I think), which launches from the same platform- it’s basically the replacement for ATACMs. I think that quite nicely covers land-based long distance stuff, although I like the idea of ground launched Spear-3, especially if we start getting it in new flavours like the EW one too. As far as air-launched stuff goes, I think Ukraine proves we have a real winner in Storm Shadow (and, to a less… Read more »
👍Good to hear!
So much for cooperation between the UK and Japan, and Meteor. I do wonder why our missiles don’t seem popular for export
Probably 2 factors, cost and integration into platforms that we dont have. Japan’s airforce is very much US only, if the US dont use the weapon itself getting it integrated is not an easy task, as we can all very much see from F35B.
We stitched ourselves up with the f35b. The US wanted us to be a tier 1 partner to help justify the cost to Congress and we should have leveraged that to ensure integration of UK weapons were part of the core design. Instead we got walked all over by the US and ended up forced to buy their stuff as integration is taking forever.
Is integration taking forever though? It took 15 years to put StormShadow and Brimstone on Typhoon.
Well that is a different topic and comes down to lack of funds. I highly doubt it would take that long if the funds had been available from the start.
You are probably right. But people lose their shit over spending money on F35. But its ok for the MOD to have fork out £2.35Billion to keep Typhoon capable into the 2030’s. And only 40 aircraft will benefit from the new radar.
To be fair, even LRASM (a JASSM-ER anti-ship derivative) is only just now being integrated onto the F-35 and it’s a Lockheed Martin missile on a Lockheed Martin airplane. I’m not saying UK weapons couldn’t have been integrated sooner, but sometimes things just take time, and always money.
https://www.navalnews.com/naval-news/2023/07/us-navy-lockheed-martin-lrasm-f35/
if Japans airforce is very much US only why are we bothering getting into bed with them regards Tempest…seems counter productive to me
Do we even have an alternative to JASSM-ER we could sell them? Cooperation is irrelevant if we can’t offer what they need.
Isn’t meteor a direct competitor?
Not remotely, Meteor is an air-to-air missile, JASSM-ER is an air launched cruise missile. The warhead alone on JASSM-ER weights more than 2.5 times as much as an entire Meteor.
Would Storm Shadow not be the UK equivalent of JASSM-ER? All be it with a publicly stated shorter range.
It’s similar, but Storm Shadow is long out of production and isn’t integrated onto F-15, F-2 (F-16) or F-35. Restarting production and integrating onto a new aircraft would make it vastly more expensive for no real advantage over JASSM-ER.
Ah yes, brainfart on my part. Completely forgot Storm Shadow is out of production!
The Japanese have the Type 12 Missile (IOC 2015) which is currently been upgraded with an in service date of around 2025. I quote from Naval News a year ago: “”The Défense White Paper released at the end of July 2022 offers our very first look at the missile. The photo provided by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, the manufacturer of the Type 12 SSM, shows a missile shaped like an AGM-158 JASSM.The Type 12 SSM originally had a range of about 200 km. The new upgraded version aims to extend the range to at least 900 km, and eventually to 1,200… Read more »
To be fair, this doesn’t really overlap with any of the stuff we’re doing with Japan. This is a long range strike missile, our equivalent is broadly speaking Storm Shadow and that’s not integrated with any aircraft that Japan uses.
Meteor is a very different class of weapon, and as far as I know the co-development of that is still going ahead quite happily- same as for the Tempest programme.
I’m not too concerned by this, to be honest.
We haven’t got a stealthy long range anti ship missile like this.
In fact it’s such a huge hole in the RAFs capabilities I’d say get an order in for 50-60 missiles like the Japanese have as having some capability is enough to potentially make your enemies pause.
I’d also say getting LRASM fitted to Poseidon or even A400 so they can be missile delivery trucks is probably a good idea. Yet again a small order of 50-100 missiles is enough for now and closes a capability gap we lost when Sea Eagle was scrapped.
Hi Steve, different capability, Meteor is an AA missile not a strike missile.
Interesting, as far as I understand it JASSM is the US equivalent of Storm Shadow- uses the same warhead and everything. I’m a little puzzled as to which hardened bunkers and bridges Japan thinks they’re going to need to crack in a defensive war- unless they’re thinking of all those new islands China has been building in contested areas…?
It’s a dual function missile I think capable of targeting naval surface task groups. In terms of hardened sites. Look at the Chinese built islands dotted all along the south China sea. A couple of those islands are larger then Pearl harbour in terms of anchorage and port facilities. They are literally splattered with hardened buildings like bunkers, ammo silos. C+c posts. Taking these islands out early in any war with China will be vital to stop their use as a springboard for offensive operations.
So plenty for JASSM ER to do.
Look at the Ukraine war, taking out bridges in their own country has been pretty key for Ukraine defensive activities.
Not sureI have faith that the subsonic JASSM-ER has what it takes to kill modern AESA radar equipped ships with capable SAMs….
Slightly off topic but I’ve been thinking about aerial decoys, such as MALD, and wondering if the CSG needs one.
So far the fleet has no attritable assets and while that will (hopefully) change with drones and SPEAR, particularly the EW variant, I wonder if an interim solution is necessary or possible.
Obviously the F-35 has great stealth but it would work even better if the enemy was looking in the wrong places.
MALDs are very useful but I think an even more pressing need would be the AARGM-ER which is the modern version of the HARM anti-radiation missile. Mach 3+, 300+ km range. It seems like the key to SEAD these days is a combination of stealth, decoy drones, EW/jamming (which F-35 can do very well and MALD-Js have jammers) and anti-radiation missiles… though with stealth I suppose the argument can be made you could get close enough to use glide bombs. The US is also developing the Stand In Attack Weapon which is an AARGM-ER – so mach 3+ and 300+… Read more »