Lockheed Martin recently took a gamble on a project with no confirmed buyers, borrowing a page from the Andurils of the defense contract world. This gamble led to the creation of the AGM-158-XR, the latest evolution in the AGM line of extreme-range missiles.
Jon Hill, vice president and general manager for Air Dominance and Strike Weapons at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control, described the AGM-158-XR as “a story of innovation and anticipating warfighter needs.”
“We are investing in something that we want to provide as an option for the Air Force to consider,” Hill said. “It leverages off the existing JASSM and LRASM lines. It essentially is a stretch version of those missiles. And think of fuel, more fuel, much longer range.”
The AGM-158-XR represents the next step in Lockheed Martin’s AGM-158B Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile and AGM-158C Long-Range Anti-Ship Missile, known as the JASSM and LRASM. Both were recently purchased by the Air Force in large quantities, with the contract costing over $3.5 billion, according to the Pentagon.
Introduced at this year’s Air, Space and Cyber Conference, the XR can carry more fuel and a larger payload and can be fired from greater distances, increasing the safety factor for pilots.
“It allows us to go in and digitize the areas where it makes sense,” Hill said. “The benefit to JASSM and the LRASM and future weapons is that we will have digitized, which is part of the whole model-based system engineering approach for future weapons.”
Despite its size, the XR can be flown on almost every platform in the Department of Defense’s hangar, except for the F-16. Its jet-black paint job is not just for aesthetics; it makes it harder for adversaries to discern its shape, size and weight.
“If you just think very simply of what a white outer mold line might look like, versus something that’s painted dark, it’s much harder for adversaries, or anybody else that may be looking on a flight line or in the air to really understand shape and size and weight,” Hill said.
While full details of the XR are not yet publicly known, a Lockheed Martin representative said it could be test-flown in 2026. However, it is still several years away from production.
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