JSOW C-1 Delivered to Navy

June 20, 2016

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The Navy’s first air-to-ground network-enabled weapon, JSOW C-1 , has been delivered to the fleet after achieving Initial Operational Capability (IOC) in early June.

Rear Adm. DeWolfe Miller , director of Air Warfare, made the announcement after JSOW-C1 completed operational testing against land and sea targets, adding this capability will provide more lethality and accuracy to the Navy’s already very capable deployed air wings around the world.

“As our mission’s focus shift, we are providing the warfighter with the first of several net-enabled weapons required to maintain strategic dominance over the Pacific,” said Capt. Jaime Engdahl, Precision Strike Weapons (PMA-201) program manager. “The JSOW C-1 is critical to the support of the Navy’s strategic vision of integrated warfare capability.”

The newest iteration of JSOW is integrated with a Link 16 network radio, enabling the weapon to engage moving targets at sea. The radio allows the launch aircraft or another designated controller to provide real-time target updates to the weapon, reassign it to another target, or to abort the mission. The weapon also uses a terminal IR seeker and GPS/INS for guidance.

"The precision targeting of this weapon and its ability to receive real-time target updates makes it the fleet’s weapon for the fight tonight,” said Cmdr. Sam Messer, JSOW program manager. “JSOW C-1 provides the ability to engage our enemies at longer ranges and the flexibility to engage in direct attack even if enemy air defenses deny our aircraft access.”

The Raytheon-built weapon will be launched from F/A-18E/F and F-35A/C aircraft.

Source : Naval Air Systems Command