Alliant Techsystems has announced that the United States Navy has accepted the initial deliveries of AGM-88E Advanced Anti-Radiation Guided Missile (AARGM) production missiles.

The missiles were delivered to the U.S. Navy by ATK at its Allegany Ballistics Laboratory (ABL) facility located in Rocket Center, WV. The AARGM team has previously completed both the Developmental and Operational Assessment test phases of the program.

"We are very proud of the hard work and dedicated efforts of the AARGM joint government/industry team in achieving this milestone. Our full focus is on execution of the production program so that this innovative, new capability can be provided to the warfighter," said Bill Kasting, Vice President and General Manager of ATK Defense Electronics Systems.

AARGM's precision capabilities allow for the destruction of modern enemy air defense systems, time-critical targets, and other mobile targets. AARGM's unique combat capability significantly increases the probability of successful engagements, minimizes the chance of collateral damage and eliminates the need to fly continuous suppression sorties throughout the duration of a conflict.

AARGM - an upgrade and complement to the U.S. Navy AGM-88 HARM system - is a U.S. and Italian international cooperative program with the U.S. Navy as the executive agent.

AARGM provides the warfighter with a supersonic, air-launched tactical missile that will be integrated on the FA-18C/D, FA-18E/F, EA-18G and Tornado ECR aircraft. The missile is also designed for compatibility with the F-35 Lightning II, EA-6B Prowler and U.S. and Allied F-16 Falcon aircraft.

Its advanced multi-sensor system, including a Millimeter Wave (MMW) terminal seeker, advanced digital Anti-Radiation Homing (ARH) receiver and a GPS/INS coupled with a Digital Electronic Terrain Data (DTED), is capable of rapidly engaging traditional and advanced enemy air defense targets as well as non-radar time-sensitive strike targets.

The AARGM MMW seeker can operate in concert with the ARH to counter RF shutdown tactics, or in a stand-alone mode to guide to non-emitting time sensitive targets. AARGM is a network-enabled weapon that will directly receive tactical intelligence information via an embedded receiver and transmits real-time Weapon Impact Assessment (WIA) reports prior to impact.