A Marine attack helicopter struck and sank a mock ship in the Pacific last week using a new air-to-ground missile, the service said Friday.
An AH-1Z Viper crew attached to Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 262 fired the live missile in the Philippine Sea near Okinawa on Wednesday as a vessel towed a mock ship, sinking it into the ocean.
The missile, which has been in development for years, is called the AGM-179 Joint Air-to-Ground Missile, or JAGM, and is meant to be used by helicopters, drones and fixed-wing platforms to “destroy high-value, stationary and moving, land and maritime targets,” according to the Navy.
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According to the Marine Corps, the first successful live-fire of the missile proved to be a boon for the service’s ability to defend maritime terrain as it continues to reorganize itself for a fight in the Pacific. And it was the first use of the live ordnance in the Pacific.
“The success of this expeditionary strike demonstrates the 31st MEU’s capability to deliver precision strikes at sea and safeguard a free and open Indo-Pacific,” Capt. Pawel Puczko, director of the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit’s communications office, said in the press release announcing the successful test on Friday.
The JAGM replaced the legendary Hellfire missile, which saw decades of service in the military at a reliability rate…
