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The Pentagon is boosting its stockpile of\u00a0<\/strong>a stealthy long-range cruise missiles that might be critical in a war with China or\u00a0Russia.<\/p>\nThe demand for the weapon \u2014 called the Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile, or\u00a0JASSM<\/span>\u00a0(pronounced jazz-\u2019em) \u2014 is so high that it has prompted manufacturer Lockheed Martin to\u00a0break ground in May\u00a0on a new 225,000-square-foot production factory in Alabama. Lockheed is also working to upgrade and\u00a0further improve\u00a0the\u00a0missile.<\/p>\n \u201cJASSM<\/span>\u00a0will see significant growth,\u201d Lockheed\u00a0CFO<\/span>\u00a0Ken Possenriede said on the company\u2019s July 23 second-quarter earnings call with investment\u00a0analysts.<\/p>\n U.S.<\/span>\u00a0Defense Department budget and acquisition documents show the Pentagon is planning to increase its\u00a0JASSM<\/span>\u00a0buy from 4,900 weapons to 7,200. The increase was first mentioned in the Pentagon\u2019s 2020 budget request, sent to Congress in March, and mentioned again in an\u00a0annual assessment of weapon programs\u00a0sent to lawmakers last week. The Air Force plans to buy more than 1,500 missiles over the next five years and another 2,000-plus in the years after that, according to\u00a0budget documents.<\/p>\n The\u00a0U.S.<\/span>\u00a0military has only used\u00a0JASSM<\/span>\u00a0once in combat:\u00a019 of them were fired\u00a0from B-1 bombers at a suspected Syrian chemical weapons facility in April 2018. But that doesn\u2019t mean they\u2019re not in\u00a0demand.<\/p>\n In November, Gen. Charles \u201cCQ<\/span>\u201d Brown, commander of Pacific Air Forces, said he wanted to\u00a0increase\u00a0JASSM<\/span>\u00a0stockpiles. He also wanted the Long-Range Anti-Ship Missile, a version of\u00a0JASSM<\/span>that can sink\u00a0ships.<\/p>\n Cruise missiles like\u00a0JASSM<\/span>\u00a0and faster flying hypersonic weapons are viewed as the weapons of future wars because they can evade detection and strike targets in areas where manned warplanes could be shot down by enemy\u00a0fire.<\/p>\n JASSM<\/span>\u00a0sales and the development of new hypersonic missiles \u2014 are fueling sales increases at Lockheed. Rival defense contractors are also seeing an uptick in missile sales as the\u00a0Pentagon\u2019s demand\u00a0for these types of weapons\u00a0increases.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re actively working multiple hypersonics and counter-hypersonics programs,\u201d Raytheon\u00a0CEO<\/span>\u00a0Tom Kenney said July 25 during his company\u2019s second quarter earnings\u00a0call.<\/p>\n Raytheon\u2019s second quarter missile sales increased 8 percent over the same period last\u00a0year.<\/p>\n \u201cRaytheon continues to build this presence in both the hypersonic and counter-hypersonic market, we\u2019re continuously and strategically investing in some of these top technology areas to make sure that we have the right solutions to bring forward to in the future competitions in both the hypersonic and counter-hypersonic area,\u201d Kennedy\u00a0said.<\/p>\n The Pentagon used tens of thousands of bombs and missiles during its five-year campaign against Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria, gathering weapons by\u00a0raiding stockpiles\u00a0from\u00a0U.S.<\/span>military commands in other parts of the\u00a0world.<\/p>\n \u201cDoD is consistently growing its missiles and munitions portfolio, but tension remains between restocking munitions expended in counterterrorism operations and developing new munitions for great-power war,\u201d budget analysis firm Govini said in a recent new assessment last\u00a0month.<\/p>\n The report said that \u201ckey munitions able to strike targets in contested environments\u201d like\u00a0JASSM<\/span>\u00a0\u201care, surprisingly flat\u201d in the Pentagon\u2019s budget\u00a0projections.<\/p>\n Lockheed is\u00a0increasing production of Hellfire missiles, weapons widely associated with drone strikes, from 7,000 per year to about 11,000 per year,\u00a0CEO<\/span>\u00a0Marillyn Hewson said in\u00a0May.<\/p>\n At the same time, the Pentagon wants more range out of its weapons and is increasing the range of many of its existing\u00a0weapons.<\/p>\n \u201cOne feature of the emerging missile renaissance: lots and lots of\u00a0US<\/span>\u00a0and allied missiles getting an \u2018-ER<\/span>\u2019 suffix added to them,\u201d Tom Karako, a missile defense expert with the Center for Strategic and International Studies,\u00a0tweeted\u00a0in reference to the military\u2019s work to\u00a0increase the range of its weapons.<\/p>\n