Finland procures a long-range air-to-surface missile system

On 1 March 2012 the Min­istry of Defence autho­rised the Defence Forces to sign the con­tract to pro­cure Joint Air-to-Sur­face Stand­off Mis­siles (AGM-158 JASSM) from the Unit­ed States for the F‑18 Hor­net air­craft of the Air Force. The long-range mis­siles have been man­u­fac­tured by Lock­heed-Mar­tin Corporation. 

The U.S. Depart­ment of Defense and the Con­gress approved of the trans­ac­tion in Novem­ber 2011, which was a pre­con­di­tion for start­ing the pro­cure­ment process. 

The pro­cure­ment of JASSM enables Fin­land to imple­ment the pol­i­cy set in the Gov­ern­ment Reports on the Finnish Secu­ri­ty and Defence Pol­i­cy in 2004 and 2009; with the long-range air-to-sur­face pre­ci­sion-guid­ed weapon sys­tem for the F‑18 air­craft it is pos­si­ble to impact the key func­tions and key tar­gets of the ene­my. AGM-158 JASSM is the only mis­sile that meets the require­ment to inte­grate the sys­tem into the F‑18 air­craft as scheduled. 

The mod­i­fi­ca­tions to the F‑18 which are includ­ed in the pro­cure­ment will be car­ried out as part of the life cycle upgrade by 2016. The pro­cure­ment is in line with secur­ing the core func­tions of the Defence Forces. It is such a vital project for the devel­op­ment of defence capa­bil­i­ty that it was not tar­get­ed for the reduc­tion of the pro­cure­ment of materiel. 

The pro­cure­ment of the mis­sile sys­tem includes mod­i­fi­ca­tions to the soft­ware of the air­craft, test and live mis­siles, tech­ni­cal doc­u­men­ta­tion and train­ing. With pay­ments spread over six years, the total price of the pro­cure­ment is EUR 178.5 mil­lion (incl. val­ue added tax). The financ­ing of the AGM-158 JASSM has already been tak­en into account in the defence bud­get and there­fore it will not increase the total amount to be spent on the pro­cure­ment of materiel in the Defence Forces. 

On 29 Feb­ru­ary 2012 the project was dis­cussed in the Cab­i­net finance com­mit­tee which advo­cat­ed the procurement. 

For more infor­ma­tion, please con­tact Min­is­te­r­i­al Advis­er Mr Jari Taka­nen on +358 9 160 88258 or +358 50 554 9571, and Head of the Media and Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Unit, Mr Jyr­ki Iivo­nen, on +358 9 160 88200 or +358 50 568 0553 in the Min­istry of Defence; Deputy Chief of Staff, Oper­a­tions, Lieu­tenant Gen­er­al Mika Pel­to­nen in the Defence Com­mand Fin­land; as to tech­ni­cal mat­ters Lieu­tenant Colonel (Eng.) Kari Renko in the Air Force on +358 299 800. 

Source:
Min­istry of Defence, Finland 

Face­book and/or on Twit­ter