https://crsreports.congress.gov
Updated July 17, 2024
Defense Primer: U.S. Precision-Guided Munitions
According to the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD), a
precision-guided munition (PGM) is a “guided weapon
intended to destroy a point target and minimize collateral
damage.” In contrast to unguided munitions such as certain
artillery rounds and rockets, a guided munition can change
its flight trajectory to correct for targeting errors, weather,
or other issues, and to increase the munition’s probability of
striking a target. Guided munitions leverage guidance
components such as inertial measurement units, global
positioning system (GPS) receivers, laser seekers, and
millimeter-wave radar seekers. This In Focus provides an
introduction to some of the most prominent guided missiles,
bombs, and rockets that constitute the U.S. military’s PGM
portfolio.
Some analysts trace the term “precision-guided” munitions
to the U.S. development of laser-guided bombs in the 1960s
and their subsequent introduction during the Vietnam War.
Although guided munitions were likely first used in the
Second World War, laser guidance and other advancements
in missilery in the 1960s and 1970s improved munitions’
ability to strike a target with greater accuracy. In time, the
term “precision” as applied to munitions became less
associated with a particular munition type, guidance
system, or measurement of accuracy than with guided
munitions writ large, as well as with the quality of the
intelligence, planning, and decisionmaking that are meant
to underpin their use.
During the 1991 First Gulf War, the United States relied on
guided munitions more than it had in previous armed
conflicts. Since then, analysts assess that guided munitions
appear to have largely supplanted unguided munitions in
U.S. military operations. Procurement and research,
development, test, and evaluation (RDT&E) spending by
the U.S. Air Force, Army, and Navy on guided munitions
has increased as each service has sought to replenish and
modernize its stocks of weapons (see Figure 1).
Air-Launched Precision Munitions
• Advanced Anti-Radiation Guided Missile–Extended
Range (AARGM-ER). The AARGM-ER, a Navy-led
program with Air Force involvement, provides hardware
and software updates to the AGM-88 High Speed Anti-
Radiation Missile (HARM), an air-launched ground
attack missile designed to target radar-equipped air
defenses. The AARGM is the product of Navy programs
in the early 2000s that added GPS receivers and
millimeter-wave radar seekers to HARM missiles.
Production of the AARGM began in 2008. The latest
version of the missile, the AGM-88G, is the extended-
range (ER) variant and incorporates a new solid rocket
motor.
• Hellfire/Longbow Missile. The AGM-114 Hellfire is an
air-to-ground missile that uses laser guidance to target
armored vehicles. The Longbow is a millimeter-wave
radar-guided variant of the Hellfire. Introduced by the
Army in 1985, the Hellfire is an Army-led joint service
program. Although the Hellfire remains in use, the
Army did not include procurement funds for the missile
in its FY2025 budget request and it is unclear whether
the Army intends to do so in future requests, according
to the service’s budget justification documents.
Figure 1. U.S. Military Spending on Selected PGMs,
FY2021-FY2025 ($ in millions)
Source: Produced by CRS using the DOD’s Major Weapons
Summaries for FY2020-FY2024 and the joint explanatory statement
for the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2024 (P.L. 118-47).
Note: This figure reflects the DOD procurement and RDT&E
funding for the PGMs described in this product.
• Joint Air-to-Ground Missile (JAGM). The AGM-179
JAGM, an Army-led joint service program, is an air-to-
ground guided missile designed to replace the Hellfire
and Longbow missiles. The JAGM combines the
warhead, motor, and flight control systems of the AGM-
114R Hellfire with a multimode seeker that features a
semi-active laser and millimeter-wave radar guidance
system. Lockheed Martin began low-rate initial
production of the JAGM in 2018.
• Joint Air-to-Surface Strike Munition (JASSM). The
AGM-158 JASSM, an Air Force-led program with Navy
participation, is a family of air-to-ground cruise missiles
composed of baseline and extended-range
configurations. The Air Force began developing the
JASSM in the mid-1990s and approved low-rate initial
production of the baseline missile in 2001. The latest
versions of the JASSM, the AGM-158B-3 and AGM-
158D, are extended-range variants that are equipped
with a Military Code (M-code) GPS receiver and an
encrypted datalink, respectively.
