U.S. Navy Tests Jet-Powered JDAM Precision Bomb
The United States Navy recently tested a precision guided Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) that uses a turbojet engine for powered flight. The service said the innovation transforms JDAM into a low-cost cruise missile. The modified JDAM, called the JDAM Long Range (LR), flew about 200 nautical miles — about five times the reach of the next-longest JDAM, according to a U.S. Navy news release.
U.S. Navy F/A-18 Super Hornet fighters launched JDAM LRs in two tests at the Point Mugu Sea Range off California in April 2026. The tests demonstrated safe separation from the Super Hornets using existing aircraft interfaces as well as controlled, powered free flight and navigation, according to the U.S. Navy news release.
“This new capability allows pilots to engage targets from significantly safer distances, maintaining a tactical advantage in contested environments,” said U.S. Navy Capt. Sarah Abbott, program manager for precision strike weapons.
Those contested environments could include Europe and the Indo-Pacific, where standoff strikes are an essential capability against anti-access/area denial threats. “Giving fourth-generation fighters increased standoff with low-cost weapons provides naval aviation platforms with significantly enhanced survivability compared to legacy stand-in JDAM variants, multiplying the range … to keep fighters and bombers outside contested or denied airspace during land attack and anti-ship missions,” the website Military News reported.
The current variant, the JDAM Extended Range (ER), can travel more than 40 nautical miles using a pop-out wing kit, according to a fact sheet from manufacturer Boeing. Essentially, the JDAM ER functions as a glide bomb. The JDAM LR, by contrast, uses the same wing kit but adds a compact TDI-J85 turbine engine, according to news website The War Zone (TWZ). “The main guidance package is derived from the GPS-assisted inertial navigation system found on typical JDAMs, and a standard low-drag 500-pound-class [225-kilogram] bomb is its warhead,” according to TWZ. Boeing designed the JDAM LR to integrate with U.S. warplanes already capable of carrying JDAM weapons, which allows for rapid fielding, according to the Navy Times.
The JDAM LR can travel more than 300 nautical miles, according to Boeing. In the tests, the JDAM LR maintained consistent guidance to target, with the first one landing “within meters” of its objective, according to a Boeing news release. In the second, the JDAM LR “successfully [incorporated] altitude changes and weapon maneuvering during an otherwise similar flight.”
The U.S. Navy called the tests a “significant milestone in bringing a new option for affordable, producible, standoff strike capability to the carrier air wing.” The U.S. Navy said it will conduct shipboard integration in the next phase of JDAM LR qualification.
“A system like JDAM LR could prove highly valuable by more rapidly expanding the overall inventory of available standoff munitions. Doing so would also help conserve higher-end systems like the AGM-158 [Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile], and other cruise missiles for targets requiring greater range or survivability,” TWZ reported.
- This article was published by Sentry
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