Background Briefing

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Navy Procurement Requests

Joint Standoff Weapons

The Navy has requested $139.457 million for 389 Joint Standoff Weapons (JSOWs), including 216 that would carry more than 31,000 submunitions.23  The JSOW is a precision-guided, air-to-ground munition that comes in three varieties.  The AGM-154A model contains 145 BLU-97 submunitions, the AGM-154B contains six BLU-108/B submunitions (like those in the Sensor Fuzed Weapon discussed below), and the AGM-154C has a unitary warhead.  The Navy is currently requesting money for the first and third types, as part of a multiyear program to procure 11,800 JSOWs, 8,800 of which will carry submunitions.  It is also requesting $9.5 million for related RDT&E.  The Air Force has procured JSOWs in past years, including 307 in FY 2004, but ended its production in FY 2005.24  

U.S. forces used 253 JSOWs in Iraq, but the military did not specify how many of those carried submunitions, information that should be made public.  The JSOW's GPS guidance system is the most accurate of the cluster munitions discussed in this briefing paper.  Like other models, however, it still has a broad footprint that makes it unsafe for use in populated areas, and its submunitions have neither guidance nor self-destruct systems.  If they continue to carry the earlier, or legacy BLU-97, the Cohen policy should bar their procurement.25  Furthermore, the nature of its submunitions is unclear.  The Naval Air Systems Command has put out a call for a newly designed BLU-97B/B that would have a self-neutralization or other mechanism to reduce the dud rate beginning FY 2005 or 2006.26

  

  • The Department of Defense should report how many of each type of JSOW it used in Iraq.

  • Congress should reject procurement requests for JSOWs with old BLU-97s.


    [23] Department of the Navy, FY 2005 President’s Budget: Weapons Procurement, Navy, February 2004, Item No. 08, Joint Standoff Weapon (JSOW), https://notes3.secnav.navy.mil/fy05.nsf/WPN?OpenForm&ExpandView (retrieved April 7, 2004).

    [24] U.S. Air Force, Committee Staff Procurement Backup Book, FY 2005 Budget Estimates: Missile Procurement, Air Force, February 2004, Item No. 4, Joint Stand-Off Weapon, p. 2-9­, http://www.saffm.hq.af.mil/FMB/pb/2005/proc.html (retrieved April 7, 2004).

    [25] Anthony J. Melita, “A Viewpoint from OSD.”  This presentation lists the JSOW with BLU-97 as one of the weapons affected by the Cohen policy, subject to a waiver or modification.

    [26] Assembly/Manufacture of BLU-97B/B Submunition, July 24, 2003, http://www1.eps.gov/spg/DON/NAVAIR/NAVAIRHQ/Reference -Number-N00019-04-P1-AZ… (retrieved June 3, 2004).


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