The AGM-114 Hellfire air-to-surface missile first entered service in 1984. Since that time it has been deployed on multiple platforms and is currently used by the MQ-1 Predator drone.
But the Pentagon is hard at work on the Hellfire’s replacement: the Joint Air-to-Ground Missile (JAGM). A $66 million contract was awarded to Lockheed Martin last summer for the project, and the missile has just gone through its first successful test-firing from a UAV.
"The missile has several modes and the missile successfully engaged the target without having to track and perfectly aimed the platform at that target," Col. James Romero, of the US Army’s Joint Attack Munition Systems said, according to Defense News.
The test, conducted at Dugway Proving Ground in Utah, involved firing the JAGM from a Gray Eagle drone and striking a moving truck. Shot from a distance of approximately 8 kilometers at "nominal altitude," the missile struck a vehicle traveling at 20 mph.
"So this missile is really flexible in that it allows the pilot to sometimes be engaged or track the target the entire time or to leave the engagement and let the missile finish its engagement on its own," Romero said.
This is the seventh JAGM test, and while the missile has been fired from attack helicopters, this marks the first time it was fired from a UAV.
Additional tests are slated through 2017, and the Pentagon hopes the JAGM will service-ready by 2018. JAGM will be used by the US Army, Navy, and Marine Corps, with each planning to buy thousands, once the project reaches completion.
