Israel in advanced talks with US to buy JASSM missiles

Israel’s Ministry of Defense is in advanced talks with the US administration to procure Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missiles (JASSM) from defense and aerospace giant Lockheed Martin, two sources in the country’s defense establishment have told “Globes.” The price of each cruise missile according to “Air & Space Forces” magazine is about $1.5 million.

The JASSM cruise missile carries a 450 kilogram (1,000 pound) armor piercing warhead and is a stealth weapon, which evades radar and interception – a major advantage for Israel’s Ministry of Defense. However, in general, due to their maneuverability, cruise missiles are slower than ballistic missiles. The missile’s guidance system, which identifies and tracks targets based on their heat emission, and its range, allow it to be launched from hundreds of kilometers away, thereby reducing the risk to aircrews.

An exclusive club

The basic version of the missile, with a range of about 370 kilometers, entered service with the US Air Force in 2009, about eight years after its mass production began. The latest version, on the other hand – JASSM-ER – has a range of about 930 kilometers, and the Pentagon itself is accelerating the pace of its armament as part of its preparations in the Pacific region against China.

The US defense budget for 2025 allocated funds for the purchase of 550 missiles of this model – a higher number than the total purchase of ER missiles in the last five years combined. Just last March, a contract worth $122.6 million was signed. In June 2022, Lockheed Martin opened another plant to increase production capacity.

The JASSM missile has become a sought-after asset among US allies, but procurement has been restricted to a small number of countries. Australia, which about three years ago procured 80 units of the model for about $235 million, is Lockheed Martin’s main overseas customer. In March 2024, the US State Department approved a potential sale to Poland of the AGM-158B-2 version, which includes, improved positioning capabilities, software updates, and high-level jamming-protected satellite communications.

CNN reported that the commander of the US European Command, Gen. Christopher Cavoli, approached Congress in September last year with a list of US weapons that could be useful to the Ukrainian army against Russia, including JASSM. Washington did not approve this, citing a lack of air superiority, even though Ukraine uses cruise missiles such as the UK’s Storm Shadow.

An article published in March in the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), a US research institute that deals with foreign policy and national security, discussed a possible sale of the missile to Israel, in an article entitled “America Needs Israel to Have the JASSM-ER.”

The three authors, Ryan Brobst, Bradley Bowman and Rear Admiral (Ret.) Mark Montgomery, noted that Israel had already demonstrated its capabilities to attack Iranian territory in April and October 2024, but warned that Iran’s air defense system was recovering and improving, with systems such as the Bavar 373 and Khordad 15.

For future large-scale strikes, the authors argue, Israel will need a larger “toolbox” of precision weapons, especially as its stockpile of ballistic missiles like Rampage, Rocks, and Air Lora is limited. They wrote, “Deeper, more diversified missile magazines would allow Israel to strike a larger number of targets from standoff range, potentially decreasing the number of aircraft that would need to enter Iranian airspace. Even the much shorter-ranged JASSM could be used to strike targets near the Iran-Iraq border.”

Soft targets

The missile is mainly integrated into advanced platforms such as B-2 stealth bombers and F-18s, as well as F-35s, which the Israeli Air Force was the first in the world to use operationally in 2018, against Revolutionary Guard targets in Syria. That same year, US fighter jets launched 19 JASSM missiles as part of the campaign against ISIS in Syria.

In short, JASSM-ER missiles are incapable of destroying well-fortified, deeply buried targets such as Iran’s nuclear sites, including the facilities at Fordow and Natanz.

As the Foundation for Defense of Democracies wrote, Israel could, however, launch JASSM-ER from fighter aircraft operating outside of Iran and strike soft and hard (not deeply buried) targets in much of the country. Targets could include command, control, communication, air defense, and radar sites. That would help clear the path for other aircraft to conduct subsequent and repeated attacks on Iran’s nuclear sites. JASSM-ER could also be used to strike other targets associated with Iran’s nuclear program, including sites associated with weaponization activities, ballistic missile storage sites, and production facilities.

No response has been forthcoming from Israel’s Ministry of Defense and Lockheed Martin.

Published by Globes, Israel business news – en.globes.co.il – on May 4, 2025.

© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd., 2025.