U.S. Air Force Orders More Kongsberg JSM Missiles to Expand F-35A Long-Range Anti-Ship Strike Capability
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Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace will build additional Joint Strike Missiles (JSM) for the U.S. Air Force under a $98.412 million contract modification, strengthening the F-35A’s ability to strike both moving warships and fixed land targets while preserving its low-observable profile. The award, announced by the U.S. Department of Defense on July 15, 2026, marks another step in integrating a stealth-compatible long-range cruise missile that expands the fighter’s combat reach without the penalties of external weapons.
Designed for internal carriage in the F-35A, the Norwegian-built JSM combines long-range precision-strike capability with the aircraft’s stealth characteristics, improving survivability in contested environments. With deliveries running through June 2030, the program is advancing beyond evaluation toward operational fielding, reinforcing the U.S. Air Force’s growing focus on survivable stand-off strike capabilities for high-intensity warfare.
Related topic: U.S. Air Force F-15EX Fighter Drops First 36 Bombs as Operational Unit Reaches Strike Readiness.
Kongsberg will deliver additional Joint Strike Missiles to the U.S. Air Force under a $98.4 million contract, expanding the F-35A’s ability to strike moving warships and fixed land targets while retaining internal weapons carriage and a reduced radar signature (Picture source: Army Recognition Group).
Lot Three B must be read in the context of the preceding awards. The Air Force awarded Kongsberg a $240.904 million Lot Two contract in December 2025 for all-up rounds, containers, test hardware and support items, with completion planned for November 2028. On June 5, 2026, it added a $280.715 million Lot Three modification, funded almost entirely from fiscal 2025 appropriations and scheduled for completion by December 2029. The new $98.412 million action extends that production sequence, but neither Kongsberg nor the Air Force disclosed the number of missiles covered by Lot Three B. Dividing the modification value by a presumed unit price would therefore be misleading because the contracted work may include containers, test assets, communications equipment, engineering support, and qualification activities in addition to complete missiles.
The JSM is a 416-kilogram, four-meter-long, high-subsonic missile with a manufacturer-stated range exceeding 350 kilometers. It uses a compact airframe developed from the Naval Strike Missile family but reshaped for the dimensional limits of the F-35A weapons bay. Kongsberg identifies a low-altitude flight profile, an accurate navigation system, an imaging-infrared seeker, and automatic target recognition as central elements of the design. The mission-planning system can route the missile around terrain, islands, and known defensive positions rather than sending it directly along the shortest line to the target. At sea, low-altitude approach reduces the radar horizon of the defending ship; over land, terrain masking can shorten the period during which surface-to-air missile batteries can detect and engage it. The imaging-infrared seeker provides a passive terminal sensor, avoiding the continuous radio-frequency emissions produced by an active radar seeker and allowing the missile to compare observed target features with stored reference data.
These characteristics define the missile’s tactical role more precisely than the frequently used description of “long-range strike.” A 350-kilometer-class range does not remove the F-35A from all modern air-defense threats, particularly when the aircraft must approach a defended coastline before launch, and actual reach will vary with release altitude, flight route, and the amount of low-level maneuvering required. The combination of internal carriage and independent low-altitude flight nevertheless shifts part of the penetration task from the fighter to the missile. An F-35A can approach with its reduced radar signature intact, release from inside the weapons bay, and turn away while the JSM follows a preplanned route toward a ship, coastal command post, radar site, or other selected aimpoint. Against a naval group, several fighters could release missiles on separated bearings and planned arrival times, increasing the number of sectors that shipboard radars and interceptors must cover. That method does not guarantee penetration, but it imposes a more difficult tracking and engagement problem than a single-axis attack.
The Air Force’s own fiscal 2027 documentation also shows that the program remains dependent on integration and test work. Norwegian-funded F-35A developmental test and evaluation was projected for completion in December 2026, while U.S. operational test and evaluation was scheduled to begin in October 2027. The Air Force plans additional service-specific integration, regression, qualification and cybersecurity testing rather than accepting Norwegian results without further verification. Fiscal 2027 funding also includes a Tactical Network radio and a retrofit effort, indicating that communications and weapon-interface changes remain part of the fielding package. This schedule means that missiles can enter production before the complete U.S. operational-test program is finished, a common concurrency decision intended to shorten fielding time but one that can generate retrofit costs if testing identifies hardware or software changes.
The procurement profile is more informative than any single contract announcement. The fiscal 2027 Air Force budget records 102 missiles in prior years and 40 in fiscal 2025, requests up to 100 in fiscal 2027 and projects 41 in fiscal 2028, for a stated total of 283. It associates approximately $1.049 billion in procurement funding with that quantity. The budget lists a fiscal 2027 flyaway unit cost of $3.408 million and a gross weapon-system unit cost of $3.846 million; the difference covers costs beyond the missile itself. The projected fiscal 2028 figures rise to $3.531 million flyaway and $4.380 million gross per missile. These values are planning figures rather than final negotiated prices, and the Air Force explicitly notes that quantities may change through buy-to-budget provisions and negotiated pricing bands.
For the United States, the requirement is principally one of force distribution. JSM allows F-35A squadrons already assigned to tactical air operations to contribute to maritime strike without waiting for a smaller number of bomber sorties or accepting the radar-signature penalty of externally carried weapons. It also adds a moving-target and coastal-strike option suited to dispersed operations across the Pacific and northern Europe, where aircraft may have to launch from several bases and attack ships approaching different maritime corridors. The missile does not replace heavier or longer-range U.S. cruise missiles; its smaller dimensions, internal carriage and F-35A integration give it a separate role during the early stages of a campaign, when air defenses remain active. Kongsberg’s new facility in Toano, Virginia, scheduled to begin missile manufacturing in late 2027 and reach full-rate production by the end of 2028, could also reduce exclusive reliance on Norwegian production while supporting both JSM and Naval Strike Missile work. The operational value of the program will therefore depend less on another isolated order than on completing F-35A testing, establishing a sustainable production rate, and buying enough missiles for training, forward stocks, and combat expenditure.
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Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace will build additional Joint Strike Missiles (JSM) for the U.S. Air Force under a $98.412 million contract modification, strengthening the F-35A’s ability to strike both moving warships and fixed land targets while preserving its low-observable profile. The award, announced by the U.S. Department of Defense on July 15, 2026, marks another step in integrating a stealth-compatible long-range cruise missile that expands the fighter’s combat reach without the penalties of external weapons.
Designed for internal carriage in the F-35A, the Norwegian-built JSM combines long-range precision-strike capability with the aircraft’s stealth characteristics, improving survivability in contested environments. With deliveries running through June 2030, the program is advancing beyond evaluation toward operational fielding, reinforcing the U.S. Air Force’s growing focus on survivable stand-off strike capabilities for high-intensity warfare.
Related topic: U.S. Air Force F-15EX Fighter Drops First 36 Bombs as Operational Unit Reaches Strike Readiness.
Kongsberg will deliver additional Joint Strike Missiles to the U.S. Air Force under a $98.4 million contract, expanding the F-35A’s ability to strike moving warships and fixed land targets while retaining internal weapons carriage and a reduced radar signature (Picture source: Army Recognition Group).
Lot Three B must be read in the context of the preceding awards. The Air Force awarded Kongsberg a $240.904 million Lot Two contract in December 2025 for all-up rounds, containers, test hardware and support items, with completion planned for November 2028. On June 5, 2026, it added a $280.715 million Lot Three modification, funded almost entirely from fiscal 2025 appropriations and scheduled for completion by December 2029. The new $98.412 million action extends that production sequence, but neither Kongsberg nor the Air Force disclosed the number of missiles covered by Lot Three B. Dividing the modification value by a presumed unit price would therefore be misleading because the contracted work may include containers, test assets, communications equipment, engineering support, and qualification activities in addition to complete missiles.
The JSM is a 416-kilogram, four-meter-long, high-subsonic missile with a manufacturer-stated range exceeding 350 kilometers. It uses a compact airframe developed from the Naval Strike Missile family but reshaped for the dimensional limits of the F-35A weapons bay. Kongsberg identifies a low-altitude flight profile, an accurate navigation system, an imaging-infrared seeker, and automatic target recognition as central elements of the design. The mission-planning system can route the missile around terrain, islands, and known defensive positions rather than sending it directly along the shortest line to the target. At sea, low-altitude approach reduces the radar horizon of the defending ship; over land, terrain masking can shorten the period during which surface-to-air missile batteries can detect and engage it. The imaging-infrared seeker provides a passive terminal sensor, avoiding the continuous radio-frequency emissions produced by an active radar seeker and allowing the missile to compare observed target features with stored reference data.
These characteristics define the missile’s tactical role more precisely than the frequently used description of “long-range strike.” A 350-kilometer-class range does not remove the F-35A from all modern air-defense threats, particularly when the aircraft must approach a defended coastline before launch, and actual reach will vary with release altitude, flight route, and the amount of low-level maneuvering required. The combination of internal carriage and independent low-altitude flight nevertheless shifts part of the penetration task from the fighter to the missile. An F-35A can approach with its reduced radar signature intact, release from inside the weapons bay, and turn away while the JSM follows a preplanned route toward a ship, coastal command post, radar site, or other selected aimpoint. Against a naval group, several fighters could release missiles on separated bearings and planned arrival times, increasing the number of sectors that shipboard radars and interceptors must cover. That method does not guarantee penetration, but it imposes a more difficult tracking and engagement problem than a single-axis attack.
The Air Force’s own fiscal 2027 documentation also shows that the program remains dependent on integration and test work. Norwegian-funded F-35A developmental test and evaluation was projected for completion in December 2026, while U.S. operational test and evaluation was scheduled to begin in October 2027. The Air Force plans additional service-specific integration, regression, qualification and cybersecurity testing rather than accepting Norwegian results without further verification. Fiscal 2027 funding also includes a Tactical Network radio and a retrofit effort, indicating that communications and weapon-interface changes remain part of the fielding package. This schedule means that missiles can enter production before the complete U.S. operational-test program is finished, a common concurrency decision intended to shorten fielding time but one that can generate retrofit costs if testing identifies hardware or software changes.
The procurement profile is more informative than any single contract announcement. The fiscal 2027 Air Force budget records 102 missiles in prior years and 40 in fiscal 2025, requests up to 100 in fiscal 2027 and projects 41 in fiscal 2028, for a stated total of 283. It associates approximately $1.049 billion in procurement funding with that quantity. The budget lists a fiscal 2027 flyaway unit cost of $3.408 million and a gross weapon-system unit cost of $3.846 million; the difference covers costs beyond the missile itself. The projected fiscal 2028 figures rise to $3.531 million flyaway and $4.380 million gross per missile. These values are planning figures rather than final negotiated prices, and the Air Force explicitly notes that quantities may change through buy-to-budget provisions and negotiated pricing bands.
For the United States, the requirement is principally one of force distribution. JSM allows F-35A squadrons already assigned to tactical air operations to contribute to maritime strike without waiting for a smaller number of bomber sorties or accepting the radar-signature penalty of externally carried weapons. It also adds a moving-target and coastal-strike option suited to dispersed operations across the Pacific and northern Europe, where aircraft may have to launch from several bases and attack ships approaching different maritime corridors. The missile does not replace heavier or longer-range U.S. cruise missiles; its smaller dimensions, internal carriage and F-35A integration give it a separate role during the early stages of a campaign, when air defenses remain active. Kongsberg’s new facility in Toano, Virginia, scheduled to begin missile manufacturing in late 2027 and reach full-rate production by the end of 2028, could also reduce exclusive reliance on Norwegian production while supporting both JSM and Naval Strike Missile work. The operational value of the program will therefore depend less on another isolated order than on completing F-35A testing, establishing a sustainable production rate, and buying enough missiles for training, forward stocks, and combat expenditure.
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