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1 [1] (December 5, 2024)

handle is hein.crs/governm0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Updated December 5, 2024 Defense Primer: U.S. Precision-Guided Munitions According to the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD), a precision-guided munition (PGM) is a guided weapon intended to destroy a point target and minimize collateral damage. In contrast to unguided munitions such as certain artillery rounds and rockets, a guided munition can change its flight trajectory to correct for targeting errors, weather, or other issues, and to increase the munition's probability of striking a target. Guided munitions leverage guidance components such as inertial measurement units, global positioning system (GPS) receivers, laser seekers, and millimeter-wave radar seekers. This In Focus provides an introduction to some of the most prominent guided missiles, bombs, and rockets that constitute the U.S. military's PGM portfolio. Some analysts trace the term precision-guided munitions to the U.S. development of laser-guided bombs in the 1960s and their subsequent introduction during the Vietnam War. Although guided munitions were likely first used in the Second World War, laser guidance and other advancements in missilery in the 1960s and 1970s improved munitions' ability to strike a target with greater accuracy. In time, the term precision as applied to munitions became less associated with a particular munition type, guidance system, or measurement of accuracy than with guided munitions writ large, as well as with the quality of the intelligence, planning, and decisionmaking that are meant to underpin their use. During the 1991 First Gulf War, the United States relied on guided munitions more than it had in previous armed conflicts. Since then, analysts assess that guided munitions appear to have largely supplanted unguided munitions in U.S. military operations. Procurement and research, development, test, and evaluation (RDT&E) spending by the U.S. Air Force, Army, and Navy on guided munitions has increased as each service has sought to replenish and modernize its stocks of weapons (see Figure 1). Seected Ar-Launched Predsion Munitions * Advanced Anti-Radiation Guided Missile-Extended Range (AARGM-ER). The AARGM-ER, a Navy-led program with Air Force involvement, provides hardware and software updates to the AGM-88 High Speed Anti- Radiation Missile (HARM), an air-launched ground attack missile designed to target radar-equipped air defenses. The AARGM is the product of Navy programs in the early 2000s that added GPS receivers and millimeter-wave radar seekers to HARM missiles. Production of the AARGM began in 2008. The latest version of the missile, the AGM-88G, is the extended- range (ER) variant and incorporates a new solid rocket motor. * Hellfire/Longbow Missile. The AGM-114 Hellfire is an air-to-ground missile that uses laser guidance to target armored vehicles. The Longbow is a millimeter-wave radar-guided variant of the Hellfire. Introduced by the Army in 1985, the Hellfire is an Army-led joint service program. Although the Hellfire remains in use, the Army did not include procurement funds for the missile in its FY2025 budget request and it is unclear whether the Army intends to do so in future requests, according to the service's budget justification documents. Figure I. U.S. Military Spending on Selected PGMs, FY202 I -FY2025 ($ in millions) $10,000 $8,000 $6,000 $4,000 $2,000 $0 FY2020 FY2021 FY2022 FY2023 FY2024 Source: Produced by CRS using the DOD's Major Weapons Summaries for FY2020-FY2024 and the joint explanatory statement for the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2024 (P.L. 118-47). Note: This figure reflects the DOD procurement and RDT&E funding for the PGMs described in this product. * Joint Air-to-Ground Missile (JAGM). The AGM-179 JAGM, an Army-led joint service program, is an air-to- ground guided missile designed to replace the Hellfire and Longbow missiles. The JAGM combines the warhead, motor, and flight control systems of the AGM- 1 14R Hellfire with a multimode seeker that features a semi-active laser and millimeter-wave radar guidance system. Lockheed Martin began low-rate initial production of the JAGM in 2018. * Joint Air-to-Surface Strike Munition (JASSM). The AGM-158 JASSM, an Air Force-led program with Navy participation, is a family of air-to-ground cruise missiles composed of baseline and extended-range configurations. The Air Force began developing the JASSM in the mid-1990s and approved low-rate initial production of the baseline missile in 2001. The latest versions of the JASSM, the AGM-158B-3 and AGM- 158D, are extended-range variants that are equipped with a Military Code (M-code) GPS receiver and an encrypted datalink, respectively.