The U.S. State Department has made a determination approving a possible Foreign Military Sale to Germany, through the NATO Support and Procurement Agency (NSPA) acting as its Agent, up to 91 AGM-88E Advanced Anti-Radiation Guided Missile (AARGM) Tactical Missiles, and up to 8 AGM-88E AARGM Captive Air Training Missiles (CATM) for an estimated cost of $122.86 million.

AGM-88E (Picture source: David Monniaux)

The Government of Germany has requested to buy, through the NATO Support and Procurement Agency (NSPA) acting as its Agent, up to ninety-one 91 AGM-88E Advanced Anti-Radiation Guided Missile (AARGM) Tactical Missiles, and up to 8 AGM-88E AARGM Captive Air Training Missiles (CATM). Also included are up to six 6 telemetry/flight termination systems, Flight Data Recorders (FDR), U.S. Government and contractor engineering, technical and logistics support services and miscellaneous support equipment, and other related elements of logistical and program support. The total estimated cost is $122.86 million.

The AGM-88E AARGM is an upgrade to the older generation AGM-88B High-Speed Anti-Radiation Missile (HARM), which Germany first purchased in 1988. The AGM-88E AARGMs in this case will be manufactured using a mixture of new components and older sections from Germany's existing stock of AGM-88Bs provided as Government Furnished Equipment (GFE). Germany will have no difficulty absorbing this equipment and support into its armed forces.

Germany has requested that the NSPA act as its agent for the FMS procurement and case management to support the AARGM program. The principal U.S. contractor will be NGIS, Ridgecrest, CA. The integration efforts will be via a Direct Commercial Sale (DCS), initiated by the Luftwaffe, between the Tornado Management Agency (NETMA) and the AARGM Original Equipment Manufacturer, Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems, formerly known as Orbital ATK (OA). There are no known offset agreements associated with this potential sale.

Implementation of this proposed sale will require five U.S. government personnel and three contractor representatives to travel to Germany to provide Program Management Reviews. Two visits are planned per year over the next five years.