JAGM is essentially a new dual-mode guidance unit mounted on a Hellfire missile carrier. An AH-1Z from the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit stationed in the Philippine Sea.
A US Maritime Corps AH-1Z Viper attack helicopter from the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit (31MEU) took part in another live-fire exercise amid escalating tensions between China and the US. Sinking A mobile training target ship in the Philippine Sea on June 26, 2024.
Marine Corps pilots adopted AGM-179 Missile (Joint Air-to-Surface Missile) struck a “mobile training ship” during an expeditionary strike exercise. The Marine Corps also called it the “first” JAGM fired from an AH-1Z Viper helicopter in the Indo-Pacific region.
The exercise follows a June 15-21 exercise in which Marine Fighter Attack Squadron (VMFA) 214 sent four U.S. Marine Corps F-35B Lightning II fighters lay down GBU-32 JDAM (Joint Direct Attack Munition) bombs strike floating targets off the coast of western Luzon. The exercise also involved Philippine Navy and Air Force drones and US C-130s.
exercise
The latest exercise conducted by the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit based in Okinawa, Japan in the Philippine Sea (covering Taiwan’s eastern maritime flank) is significant because China is assessed to be implementing an all-around blockade of the island. The tactical significance of the exercise will be explained later.
The statement said that an AH-1Z Viper fighter jet belonging to the Marine Medium Tilt-Rotor Squadron (VMM) 262 fired a “live AGM-179 JAGM Hitting a mobile training ship being towed during a training mission at sea. ” JAGM is a precision-guided munition designed to engage high-value fixed, mobile and relocatable land and maritime targets.
During a conflict, the missile can be used to defend critical maritime terrain from targets ranging from armored vehicles to offshore patrol boats. “The success of this expeditionary strike demonstrates the 31st MEU’s ability to conduct precision strikes at sea and maintain a free and open Indo-Pacific,” said the statement. “As the nation’s premier crisis response force, the 31st MEU provides a credible and sustainable force capable of conducting a wide range of combat and humanitarian operations.”
A Marine Corps statement said JAGM provides a true “fire-and-forget capability that directs the missile to its final stage, capable of destroying fast-moving maritime targets, such as fast attack craft (FACs), in rough seas.”
AGM-179 Missile
It was introduced for much the same purpose as the AGM-114 Hellfire missile, with which it shares significant commonality, and is produced by the same team that developed the Hellfire missile. The basic AGM-179 JAGM has already begun operating on the U.S. Army’s AH-64E Apache helicopters and the Marine Corps’ AH-1Z Viper attack helicopters, although developer Lockheed Martin is also working on an MR (medium range) variant.
Lockheed Declared On August 30, 2022, JAGM was approved by the US Army to enter FRP (full-rate production). JAGM is basically a new “dual-mode” guidance section installed on the Hellfire “bus”, and Lockheed’s brochures and illustrations show the propulsion system and warhead. Hellfire has SAL (semi-active laser), while JAGM has MMR (millimeter wave radar) in addition to SAL. Its range can reach 0.5 to 8 kilometers.
“The dual-mode sensor combines improved SAL and MMW radar sensors to provide precision strike and fire-and-forget capabilities against stationary and moving land, sea and even air targets. This seeker enables JAGM users to engage multiple targets nearly simultaneously and with greater accuracy in adverse weather and obscured battlefield conditions, thereby increasing the user’s survivability and combat effectiveness.”
Tactical and practical
Following its FRP, Marine Light Attack Helicopter Squadron 369 fired a JAGM in a similar test. December 7, 2022 AH-1Z Viper helicopters conduct strikes against “mobile maritime targets” off the coast of California during Iron Knight Exercise 23. The exercise, conducted by Marine Aviation Group 39 (MAG 39), was a “sea denial operation to conduct littoral operations in a contested environment.”
#Marine Corps AH-1Z Viper @3rdmaw take off @MCIWPendletonCA Loading an AGM-179 Joint Air-to-Surface Missile (JAGM), 13 December.
JAGM is a precision-guided munition designed to engage high-value stationary, mobile and relocatable land and maritime targets. pic.twitter.com/erpNJH9Vjd
— United States Marine Corps (@USMC) December 22, 2022
in the following Report A Marine AH-1Z Viper pilot explains how the AH-1Z could potentially play an “anti-ship role” by striking warships in 2023. With the Link16 data link, the JAGM can receive targeting updates from other assets, without the need for radio transmissions, and the Viper pilot can “fly at very low airspeeds to avoid detection, shoot the most valuable parts of the ship and then fly away.”
These can be assumed to be radar and electronic warfare masts, which certainly won’t sink the ship, but will blind the ship to all the larger and heavier anti-ship missiles coming at it. Subsequent strikes could be coordinated with Viper-JAGM attacks, with US Navy F/A-18 Super Hornets firing AGM-158C LRASMs (Long Range Anti-Ship Missiles).
Parth Satam’s career spans fifteen years, with stints at two daily newspapers and two defence publications. He believes that war, as a human endeavour, has causes and consequences far beyond the fastest missiles and jets. As such, he enjoys analysing the intersection of military affairs with foreign policy, economics, technology, society and history. His work covers defence aerospace, tactics, military doctrine and theory, personnel issues, West Asia, Eurasian affairs, the energy sector and space.
