Alliant Techsystems, MINNEAPOLIS: The AARGM international government – industry team (Alliant Techsystems, U.S. Navy & Marine Corps (USMC) and Italian Air Force) has successfully completed the Critical Design Review (CDR) of the AGM-88E Advanced Anti-Radiation Guided Missile (AARGM). During the CDR, all elements of the AARGM system were thoroughly reviewed to ensure that the weapon system's predicted performance will meet warfighting requirements and that the program remains on schedule and on cost.
The CDR was also the first major review attended by the Italian Air Force since signing a Memorandum of Agreement with the U.S. Department of Defense to participate in AARGM development. Once in production, the Italian government is expected to procure approximately 250 AARGM systems in addition to the 1,750 systems to be procured by the U.S. Navy/Marine Corps.
The CDR provided an opportunity for the government/industry team to demonstrate the extent of its progress since successfully completing the Preliminary Design Review in April 2005. The conclusion of the CDR Board is that the AARGM design will give U.S. and Italian forces a producible, highly reliable, and easily maintainable missile system that will meet the demanding operational requirements of Destruction of Enemy Air Defenses and Time- Sensitive Strike.
“The joint Navy/ATK team has worked very hard to ensure that we meet all design, development, and production transition milestones for the AARGM program,” said Tony Castrogiovanni, ATK Vice President, Strike Weapons and Directed Energy. “The AARGM program's continuing success is the result of a government/industry team that is totally focused on developing a transformational capability for the warfighter while remaining within program budget and schedule constraints.”
AARGM is a supersonic, air-launched tactical missile compatible with U.S. and allied F/A-18, EA-6B, Joint Strike Fighter, F-16 CJ, and Tornado IDS/ECR aircraft. Its multi-sensor system design (including an advanced digital Anti- Radiation Homing (ARH) receiver and conformal array antenna system, a Millimeter Wave (MMW) terminal seeker and a GPS/INS) is capable of selectively engaging a variety of time-sensitive strike targets in addition to enemy air defense targets. AARGM is network-enabled and will provide near real-time Weapon Impact Assessments (WIA) to support joint force commanders. AARGM, the next iteration in the highly successful AGM-88 series weapons, is a Department of the Navy major acquisition program under Program Executive Office, Strike Weapons & Unmanned Aviation (PEO(W)).
The next milestone in AARGM's development cycle is the testing of its Common Control Section mated with a legacy HARM seeker. This testing is part of the cooperative program with the Italian Ministry of Defense in support of AARGM System Design and Development program objectives. It follows the same test philosophy demonstrated with seven successful test firings in the AARGM Advanced Technology Demonstration (ATD) and Quick Bolt Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration (ACTD). The Quick Bolt ACTD, sponsored by US European Command, was followed by a Military Utility Assessment that praised the demonstration results and requested acceleration of the development program.
ATK is a $3.1 billion advanced weapon and space systems company employing approximately 15,000 people in 23 states.
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