Lockheed Martin has been awarded the US Air Force contract worth $51 million for Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile Extreme Range (JASSM-XR), the Department of defence announced Monday.

This contract effort includes all all-up round level systems engineering and programmatic activities to align and phase the work necessary to design, develop, integrate, test, and verify component and subsystem design changes to the JASSM-XR baseline electronics, hardware, firmware, and operational flight software.

Armed with a penetrating blast-fragmentation warhead, JASSM-ER and JASSM can be used in all weather conditions. They share the same capabilities and stealth characteristics, though JASSM-ER has more than two-and-a-half times the range of JASSM for greater standoff distance. These cruise missiles also employ an infrared seeker and digital anti-jam GPS to dial into specific points on targets.