The U.S. Army awarded a joint venture of Lockheed Martin and Raytheon a $1.3 billion contract to produce Javelin antitank weapons, the companies announced Thursday. The contract, which is the largest single-year deal to date in program history, is the first follow-on award of a production order dated May 2023. The Javelin Joint Venture (JJV) began to ramp up production activities of the man-portable, anti-armor weapon last year to boost production of all-up rounds, an industry term that describes complete munitions, to 3,960 annually by late 2026, a JJV statement notes.
Demand is increasing for Javelin worldwide, particularly as Ukraine continues to use the weapon extensively in its fight against the Russian invasion which began in February 2022. It has proven effective against Russian armor. Part of the new contract covers the production of 4,000 Javelins to replenish what was sent to Ukraine. The joint venture supports more than 25 international customers globally, including Kosovo, one of its newest customers, and has produced more than 50,000 Javelin missiles and more than 12,000 reusable command launch units, the companies reported.
In addition to Kosovo, since the start of the war in Ukraine, the JJV has received a large number of orders from new international customers including Albania, Latvia, Romania, Bulgaria, Morocco, Thailand and Brazil. Last fall, Poland’s state-run defense group PGZ announced it had signed a memorandum of understanding with the American joint venture to jointly produce Javelin weapons. “With the increased demand for Javelin worldwide, our ability to ramp production to support our Army customer and global users is more important now than ever,” Dave Pantano, JJV vice president and Lockheed Martin Javelin program director, said in the statement.
Jen Judson is an award-winning journalist covering land warfare for Defense News. She has also worked for Politico and Inside Defense. She holds a Master of Science degree in journalism from Boston University and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Kenyon College.
