Lockheed Martin successfully tests new CMMT-D and CMMT-X missiles to increase US Air Force’s strike capacity
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On July 16, 2025, Lockheed Martin announced that it had conducted flight tests of two variants of its Common Multi-Mission Truck (CMMT) air vehicles, the CMMT-D and the CMMT-X, as part of an effort to develop low-cost, modular cruise missiles for future U.S. Air Force operations.Follow Army Recognition on Google News at this link
The CMMT-X is a powered missile launched from pylons to offer greater range and flexibility, while the CMMT-D is an unpowered glide missile launched from cargo aircraft pallets for high-volume strikes. (Picture source: Lockheed Martin)
In May 2025, the CMMT-D, a glide-configured air vehicle, was dropped from a Rapid Dragon pallet suspended under a helicopter at 14,500 feet at the Tillamook UAS Test Range in Oregon. The glide vehicle deployed its wings and descended safely without engine power, simulating a real-world deployment from a transport aircraft. In June, the CMMT-X, a powered variant, was pylon-launched from a test aircraft at the Pendleton UAS Range, marking the first airborne pylon launch for the CMMT family. After separation, the CMMT-X unfolded its wings and initiated powered flight. The two variants are part of a broader strategy to provide flexible, scalable cruise missile systems compatible with a wide range of airborne platforms.
The development of the Common Multi-Mission Truck (CMMT) is part of Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works portfolio under Project Carrera, which focuses on model-based engineering and digital integration to reduce development time and cost. Both variants were developed in less than a year: CMMT-D achieved first flight within ten months of concept initiation, and CMMT-X proceeded from concept to powered flight within seven months. CMMT-X builds directly on the earlier Speed Racer program launched in 2020, which tested the feasibility of expendable-class systems. Lockheed Martin reports that the CMMT design meets Weapon Open System Architecture (WOSA) standards. This modular approach enables the integration of various seekers, propulsion systems, and payloads to fulfill different mission profiles. The CMMT-D is the first compact cruise missile to demonstrate compatibility with Rapid Dragon pallets, previously used with larger weapons like the AGM-158 JASSM. Rapid Dragon allows cargo aircraft such as the C-130 and C-17 to serve as standoff strike platforms, deploying munitions in volume without requiring dedicated launch aircraft.
The CMMT (pronounced “comet”) was unveiled in early 2025, with a public presentation of CMMT-D occurring at the Air and Space Force Association Warfare Symposium in March. The design was introduced as part of the U.S. Air Force’s Franklin initiative to establish a new category of long-range precision strike weapons priced at under $150,000 per unit. According to Lockheed Martin, the standard CMMT is 96 inches long and capable of fitting inside the internal weapons bay of the F-35, although extended versions with additional fuel may exceed this configuration. The CMMT-D glide vehicle has a reported range of approximately 800 kilometers (500 miles), while the CMMT-X has an estimated range of 650 kilometers (350 miles). Both systems are subsonic and are not intended to feature advanced stealth characteristics. The stated goal is to complement high-cost systems such as the AGM-158 JASSM and LRASM, which cost over $1.5 million per unit, by offering a volume-fire option capable of saturating air defenses or engaging medium-value targets.
Lockheed Martin positions the CMMT family as a candidate for mass production, offering a manufacturing approach structured around scalability and supply chain flexibility. The company states that a single C-130 could carry up to four Rapid Dragon pallets, each equipped with 25 CMMT-Ds, enabling a salvo of 100 weapons per sortie. The design supports production capacities of up to 2,500 missiles per year. This volume is consistent with the Air Force’s goals under the Family of Affordable Mass Missiles (FAMM) program, although Lockheed Martin is not currently a participant in that competition, which includes Anduril Technologies and Zone 5 Technologies. The CMMT is also intended for deployment from rotary-wing aircraft and ground-based platforms such as HIMARS. To manage production costs and timelines, the CMMT incorporates components from existing Lockheed systems and emphasizes delayed integration of subsystems like fuel tanks and warheads to allow final assembly closer to deployment areas. The company has identified Camden, Arkansas as a possible assembly location, but states that the modular design allows decentralized production and on-site integration in multiple locations, including abroad.
Digital engineering plays a central role in reducing development cycle time. Lockheed Martin reports that by leveraging previous work from SPEED RACER and other programs, it was able to reduce the time to preliminary design review by 50 percent. This approach is part of the company’s 1LMX initiative, its largest internal transformation effort to date. 1LMX aims to reengineer development workflows, incorporate model-based systems engineering, and streamline supply chains. Lockheed Martin states that manufacturing and quality engineering personnel are involved early in the CMMT program phases to ensure that designs are immediately compatible with distributed and repeatable production. Agile production cells are intended to allow the quick replication of assembly lines across the U.S. and allied territory. The CMMT’s open architecture also allows it to accept evolving hardware and software requirements without needing a full redesign. The use of internal design catalogs and software-defined architectures is intended to accelerate time to market and reduce costs for follow-on configurations.
Project Carrera, which includes the CMMT program, is organized around three main investment areas: $20 million allocated for manned-unmanned teaming (including development of collaborative autonomous systems), $42 million for enabling open architecture, waveforms, and rapid prototyping, and $38 million for battlefield integration systems, including Low Earth Orbit sensors and command-and-control interfaces. The project builds on earlier initiatives such as the X-44A and Skyborg, and seeks to create a flexible framework for human-machine interaction, autonomy, and networked targeting. Speed Racer, a modular expendable drone initially tested with the F-35, provided the basis for the CMMT-X airframe and informed CMMT’s architectural design. According to Lockheed Martin, the CMMT platform is suited not only for kinetic missions but also for non-kinetic roles such as electronic warfare or decoy operations. In the context of the Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) program, CMMT could serve as a lower-cost support asset capable of executing autonomous or semi-autonomous operations in coordination with manned platforms.
Although the U.S. Department of Defense has not formally selected Lockheed Martin’s CMMT for a current acquisition program, the system has been positioned to meet stated requirements for low-cost, scalable standoff weapons. Lockheed executives suggest that CMMT could integrate into future iterations of the Franklin or Enterprise Test Vehicle programs. CMMT joins other recent cruise missile efforts from Lockheed Martin, including the JASSM-XR and Mako, as part of a broader effort to meet projected demand for precision-guided munitions in a potential Indo-Pacific contingency. During the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the rapid depletion of cruise missile stockpiles highlighted the limitations of relying solely on high-cost standoff munitions. By offering a cruise missile that costs less than five percent of a Tomahawk while achieving up to 25 percent of the range, Lockheed Martin aims to provide a more sustainable and flexible solution to support deterrence strategies and high-volume strike operations. The company has stated that development and testing will continue through summer 2025.
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On July 16, 2025, Lockheed Martin announced that it had conducted flight tests of two variants of its Common Multi-Mission Truck (CMMT) air vehicles, the CMMT-D and the CMMT-X, as part of an effort to develop low-cost, modular cruise missiles for future U.S. Air Force operations.
Follow Army Recognition on Google News at this link
The CMMT-X is a powered missile launched from pylons to offer greater range and flexibility, while the CMMT-D is an unpowered glide missile launched from cargo aircraft pallets for high-volume strikes. (Picture source: Lockheed Martin)
In May 2025, the CMMT-D, a glide-configured air vehicle, was dropped from a Rapid Dragon pallet suspended under a helicopter at 14,500 feet at the Tillamook UAS Test Range in Oregon. The glide vehicle deployed its wings and descended safely without engine power, simulating a real-world deployment from a transport aircraft. In June, the CMMT-X, a powered variant, was pylon-launched from a test aircraft at the Pendleton UAS Range, marking the first airborne pylon launch for the CMMT family. After separation, the CMMT-X unfolded its wings and initiated powered flight. The two variants are part of a broader strategy to provide flexible, scalable cruise missile systems compatible with a wide range of airborne platforms.
The development of the Common Multi-Mission Truck (CMMT) is part of Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works portfolio under Project Carrera, which focuses on model-based engineering and digital integration to reduce development time and cost. Both variants were developed in less than a year: CMMT-D achieved first flight within ten months of concept initiation, and CMMT-X proceeded from concept to powered flight within seven months. CMMT-X builds directly on the earlier Speed Racer program launched in 2020, which tested the feasibility of expendable-class systems. Lockheed Martin reports that the CMMT design meets Weapon Open System Architecture (WOSA) standards. This modular approach enables the integration of various seekers, propulsion systems, and payloads to fulfill different mission profiles. The CMMT-D is the first compact cruise missile to demonstrate compatibility with Rapid Dragon pallets, previously used with larger weapons like the AGM-158 JASSM. Rapid Dragon allows cargo aircraft such as the C-130 and C-17 to serve as standoff strike platforms, deploying munitions in volume without requiring dedicated launch aircraft.
The CMMT (pronounced “comet”) was unveiled in early 2025, with a public presentation of CMMT-D occurring at the Air and Space Force Association Warfare Symposium in March. The design was introduced as part of the U.S. Air Force’s Franklin initiative to establish a new category of long-range precision strike weapons priced at under $150,000 per unit. According to Lockheed Martin, the standard CMMT is 96 inches long and capable of fitting inside the internal weapons bay of the F-35, although extended versions with additional fuel may exceed this configuration. The CMMT-D glide vehicle has a reported range of approximately 800 kilometers (500 miles), while the CMMT-X has an estimated range of 650 kilometers (350 miles). Both systems are subsonic and are not intended to feature advanced stealth characteristics. The stated goal is to complement high-cost systems such as the AGM-158 JASSM and LRASM, which cost over $1.5 million per unit, by offering a volume-fire option capable of saturating air defenses or engaging medium-value targets.
Lockheed Martin positions the CMMT family as a candidate for mass production, offering a manufacturing approach structured around scalability and supply chain flexibility. The company states that a single C-130 could carry up to four Rapid Dragon pallets, each equipped with 25 CMMT-Ds, enabling a salvo of 100 weapons per sortie. The design supports production capacities of up to 2,500 missiles per year. This volume is consistent with the Air Force’s goals under the Family of Affordable Mass Missiles (FAMM) program, although Lockheed Martin is not currently a participant in that competition, which includes Anduril Technologies and Zone 5 Technologies. The CMMT is also intended for deployment from rotary-wing aircraft and ground-based platforms such as HIMARS. To manage production costs and timelines, the CMMT incorporates components from existing Lockheed systems and emphasizes delayed integration of subsystems like fuel tanks and warheads to allow final assembly closer to deployment areas. The company has identified Camden, Arkansas as a possible assembly location, but states that the modular design allows decentralized production and on-site integration in multiple locations, including abroad.
Digital engineering plays a central role in reducing development cycle time. Lockheed Martin reports that by leveraging previous work from SPEED RACER and other programs, it was able to reduce the time to preliminary design review by 50 percent. This approach is part of the company’s 1LMX initiative, its largest internal transformation effort to date. 1LMX aims to reengineer development workflows, incorporate model-based systems engineering, and streamline supply chains. Lockheed Martin states that manufacturing and quality engineering personnel are involved early in the CMMT program phases to ensure that designs are immediately compatible with distributed and repeatable production. Agile production cells are intended to allow the quick replication of assembly lines across the U.S. and allied territory. The CMMT’s open architecture also allows it to accept evolving hardware and software requirements without needing a full redesign. The use of internal design catalogs and software-defined architectures is intended to accelerate time to market and reduce costs for follow-on configurations.
Project Carrera, which includes the CMMT program, is organized around three main investment areas: $20 million allocated for manned-unmanned teaming (including development of collaborative autonomous systems), $42 million for enabling open architecture, waveforms, and rapid prototyping, and $38 million for battlefield integration systems, including Low Earth Orbit sensors and command-and-control interfaces. The project builds on earlier initiatives such as the X-44A and Skyborg, and seeks to create a flexible framework for human-machine interaction, autonomy, and networked targeting. Speed Racer, a modular expendable drone initially tested with the F-35, provided the basis for the CMMT-X airframe and informed CMMT’s architectural design. According to Lockheed Martin, the CMMT platform is suited not only for kinetic missions but also for non-kinetic roles such as electronic warfare or decoy operations. In the context of the Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) program, CMMT could serve as a lower-cost support asset capable of executing autonomous or semi-autonomous operations in coordination with manned platforms.
Although the U.S. Department of Defense has not formally selected Lockheed Martin’s CMMT for a current acquisition program, the system has been positioned to meet stated requirements for low-cost, scalable standoff weapons. Lockheed executives suggest that CMMT could integrate into future iterations of the Franklin or Enterprise Test Vehicle programs. CMMT joins other recent cruise missile efforts from Lockheed Martin, including the JASSM-XR and Mako, as part of a broader effort to meet projected demand for precision-guided munitions in a potential Indo-Pacific contingency. During the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the rapid depletion of cruise missile stockpiles highlighted the limitations of relying solely on high-cost standoff munitions. By offering a cruise missile that costs less than five percent of a Tomahawk while achieving up to 25 percent of the range, Lockheed Martin aims to provide a more sustainable and flexible solution to support deterrence strategies and high-volume strike operations. The company has stated that development and testing will continue through summer 2025.
