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Photo credit: Lockheed Martin
The US Department of State has approved the imaginable merchantability of 200 AGM-158B/B-2 Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missiles-Extended Range (JASSM-ER) to Denmark. The deal, valued astatine astir $842 million, includes the missiles and related equipment.According to the US Department of State, the merchantability volition heighten Denmark's quality to code existent and aboriginal threats by providing the Royal Danish Air Force (RDAF) with long-range precision onslaught capabilities, further strengthening the operational capabilities of its F-35 combatant fleet. Lockheed Martin volition beryllium the main contractor for the sale.Denmark is successful the process of replacing its ageing fleet of F-16 Fighting Falcons with F-35 Lightning II combatant jets.
The state is 1 of the archetypal planetary partners successful the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) programme and has ordered 43 aircraft.Denmark occupies a strategical presumption successful bluish Europe and controls entree to the Baltic Sea done the Danish Straits. Its information concerns are progressively shaped by Russia's increasing subject enactment successful bluish Europe and the Arctic region.Danish officials person besides pointed to progressively assertive Russian behaviour successful the Baltic Sea.
Danish Defence Intelligence Service Director Thomas Ahrenkiel said Russian warships person sailed connected collision courses with Danish vessels portion transiting the Danish Straits."We person seen respective incidents successful the Danish straits, wherever Danish aerial unit helicopters and naval vessels person been targeted by tracking radars and physically pointed astatine with weapons from Russian warships," Danish Defence Intelligence Service Director Thomas Ahrenkiel said astatine a property conference.About the missileThe AGM-158B Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile-Extended Range (JASSM-ER) is among the astir precocious air-launched cruise missiles successful the Western arsenal. It is designed to onslaught heavy defended, high-value targets specified arsenic bid centres, aerial defence systems, airbases and different captious subject infrastructure.
AGM-158B JASSM-ER missile
Its cardinal specifications include:
- A scope of much than 900 km and subsonic formation speed.
- A stealthy plan that reduces detection by force radar systems
- A 1,000-pound (450 kg) penetrating warhead susceptible of destroying hardened and fortified targets.
- Guidance done a operation of inertial navigation, GPS and an imaging infrared seeker.
- A turbofan motor for propulsion.
- Compatibility with a wide scope of combat aircraft, including the F-35, F-16 and F-15E fighters, arsenic good arsenic B-1B, B-2 and B-52 bombers.
Denmark's determination to get JASSM-ER missiles marks a important enhancement of its long-range onslaught capabilities astatine a clip of increasing information challenges successful bluish Europe and the Arctic.Combined with the stealth and sensor capabilities of the F-35, the rocket volition supply Copenhagen with the quality to deter imaginable adversaries, lend much efficaciously to NATO operations and onslaught high-value targets from good beyond the scope of modern aerial defence systems.
