US Air Force Proposes CHAMP EMP Warhead for JASSM Stealth Missile

The head of the Air Force Research Laboratory has nominated Lockheed Martin’s stealthy, long-range Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM-ER) as the optimal air vehicle to carry a new computer-killing electronic attack payload known as CHAMP, or Counter-electronics High-powered microwave Advanced Missile Project.

Major general Thomas Masiello says the technology, which fries electronic equipment with bursts of high-power microwave energy, is mature and will be miniaturised to suite the JASSM-ER.

“That’s an operational system already in our tactical air force, and that is really what will make us more operationally relevant,” Masiello says at a science and technology exposition at the Pentagon on 14 May. “Both the major commands and the combatant commands are very interested in that weapon system. It’s a non-kinetic effect.”

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