In 1986, the Air Force began developing TSSAM to provide a low observable conventional cruise missile. Key characteristics included long-range, autonomous guidance, automatic target recognition, and precision accuracy with a warhead able to destroy a well-protected structure. After the TSSAM procurement unit cost increased from an estimated $728,000 in 1986 to $2,062,000 in 1994 (then-year dollars), the Department of Defense (DOD) terminated the program. Following a comprehensive reassessment of force requirements, the Air Force and Navy agreed they urgently needed an affordable missile with most of TSSAM’s characteristics. They proposed a joint program that would build upon the lessons learned from TSSAM and more recent programs that use new acquisition approaches. On September 20, 1995, the Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Technology approved the initiation of the JASSM program, under Air Force leadership. It is to be developed, produced, and initially deployed over the next 5 years. The Air Force’s April 1996 schedule for JASSM development and early production calls for a 24-month competitive program definition and risk reduction phase beginning in June 1996 (milestone I); a 32-month engineering and manufacturing development phase beginning in June 1998 (milestone II); production of 75 low-rate initial production missiles beginning in production of 90 full-rate production missiles beginning in April 2001 (milestone III); and initial JASSM deployment in June 2001. Figure 1 shows the Air Force’s schedule for JASSM development, missile deliveries, and testing. The estimated development cost for the JASSM program is $675 million (fiscal year 1995 dollars). The Air Force plans to buy about 2,400 missiles at an average unit procurement price of $400,000 to $700,000 (fiscal year 1995 dollars). Based on these unit prices, we estimate the procurement cost for 2,400 Air Force missiles is $960 million to $1.68 billion, and the total estimated acquisition cost (development and procurement) is $1.64 billion to $2.36 billion. The Congress appropriated $25 million to start the JASSM program in fiscal year 1996, and the President’s fiscal year 1997 budget includes $198.6 million for the program. The JASSM Single Acquisition Management Plan has an overriding theme of affordability. To provide the required capability at an affordable cost, the Air Force plans to use a series of new acquisition processes and encourage industry to use commercial practices to lower the missile’s price and speed its deployment. To accomplish these challenging goals, the Air Force intends to establish a unique partnership with industry. In contrast to its past practice, the Air Force intends to minimize (1) the requirements to use military specifications and standards and (2) government oversight. The JASSM request for proposal, for example, is significantly shorter than for TSSAM and other past missile acquisition programs, focuses on the desired capability, and does not tell industry how to develop the missile. The Air Force intends to offer industry the maximum possible flexibility to apply commercial practices and innovation. During the 24-month competitive phase, JASSM program office personnel plan to join with contractor personnel to form problem-solving teams and help facilitate the development of the proposed missile design. The JASSM contractors are expected to modify an existing missile design, use available off-the-shelf technology, and use a variety of commercial business and technical practices. The use of commercial practices has been stressed to all potential JASSM developers. These initiatives are intended to lower development, production, and operational support costs, as well as reduce the time needed to develop and produce the system. The principal focus of the 24-month competition, for example, is to eliminate unnecessary cost and allow the contractors to trade off performance and other requirements. JASSM cost is as important as technical performance and schedule. Another innovation is that the contractor is expected to provide a lifetime, total system warranty for each missile. A similar approach using reforms and commercial practices is being used in a pilot program to acquire the Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM). Under this pilot program, the Air Force is developing a guidance system and steerable tail kit to significantly improve the accuracy of 1,000- and 2,000-pound general purpose bombs that are currently in its inventory. The JDAM program office is projecting at least a 50-percent reduction in the baseline average unit procurement price, which includes the cost of a full system warranty. Although the Air Force plans to rely upon existing missile designs and off-the-shelf technology to speed JASSM development, essential guidance and automatic target recognition technologies are not mature. The 2 to 3 years available before JASSM flight testing may not be sufficient time to fully develop, integrate, and test these complex subsystems. Because these technologies are essential to meeting the program’s requirements, their successful development is one of the pacing items of the program. JASSM is expected to use an inertial navigation system integrated with a global positioning system receiver to navigate from its launch point to the target area. This navigation system is expected to be low-cost, reliable, and accurate to about 13 meters. Global positioning system receivers, however, are vulnerable to both intentional and unintentional interference, including jamming. Recent studies by DOD and the Air Force describe how properly placed jammers can cause an unprotected global positioning system-aided weapon to entirely miss its target. One problem facing the engineering community is defining the potential jamming threat so that a cost-effective countermeasure can be developed. Although the Air Force is evaluating electronic and other countermeasures to develop an antijam capability, it appears a combination of techniques may be needed to ensure reliable and accurate missile guidance. Specially designed antennas and more rapid connection with global positioning system satellites are among the techniques being considered. The Defense Science Board recommended that DOD develop more accurate inertial navigation systems that do not rely on a global positioning system as much. The high cost of potential antijam devices or more accurate navigational systems has limited their use in precision-guided munitions. An Air Force laboratory is conducting a program to develop and test a global positioning system antijam system suitable for precision-guided munitions such as JDAM. Development of the antijam system began in 1995, and it is scheduled to be tested in fiscal year 1998. Assuming the threat uncertainties are resolved and the antijam system’s cost is acceptable, it could initially be added to JDAM. It may also be adaptable to JASSM and other precision-guided munitions. With this schedule, however, this system may not be available in time to meet JASSM’s June 1998 critical design freeze when the missile design is to be finalized. JASSM requires an automatic target recognition system for a true fire-and-forget precision attack capability under adverse weather conditions. Other programs, such as the Tomahawk, are trying to develop this technology, but no precision-guided munition available today has that capability. Although navigating to the target using a global positioning system-aided preprogrammed flight plan is a well-understood technology, reliably finding the target, and specifically, the desired aim-point without the aid of a pilot remains an unfilled DOD requirement. Precision accuracy in smoke, fog, and adverse weather conditions is a critical aspect of this technology that remains to be demonstrated in an operational system. Affordability and reliability are also important issues. The three basic sensor technologies that have been evaluated in laboratory studies are imaging infrared, laser radar, and synthetic aperture radar. All three appear suitable for JASSM, with laser and synthetic aperture radar technologies offering better adverse weather performance and easier, less costly mission planning. None of them, however, are mature enough to incorporate into an existing design today. All would require, in the opinion of Wright Laboratory engineers, intensive development in an actual weapon system program like JASSM to become a fully operational system ready for production. Wright Laboratory and JASSM program engineers estimated 2 to 3 years would be needed to develop, integrate, and flight test this technology. With a June 1998 design freeze, this does not appear to support the JASSM development schedule. According to JASSM program office officials, synthetic aperture radar technology could not be available in time for JASSM, and the availability of laser radar technology is questionable. They said an imaging infrared radar could be ready and is a likely candidate for JASSM. Based on our analyses of other programs, including TSSAM, developing imaging infrared technology and its associated mission planning elements in 2 years will be difficult. In an autonomous guidance system using an imaging infrared sensor, the system tries to match the sensor-detected image to a computer image of the target obtained earlier. Because the system relies on light intensity variation, the time of day, time of year, and atmospheric conditions are important and sometimes difficult to manage. Extensive laboratory testing by the Air Force has shown that such systems are error prone and unreliable. Also, the key problems of mission planning have not yet been satisfactorily resolved. JASSM is to ultimately be carried by a variety of Air Force and Navy aircraft, including F-16, F-15, and F/A-18 fighters and B-52H, B-1B, and B-2 bombers. Because these aircraft have different structural and electrical systems, JASSM must be designed to be compatible with all of them. For example, the missile can weigh no more than 2,250 pounds based on a F-16 and F/A-18 carriage limitation. The missile can be no longer than 168 inches for it to fit on the B-1B’s internal launcher. It must also be compatible with different electrical circuits and software systems applicable to the various aircraft launch platforms.