The American defense conglomerate Northrop Grumman has presented a new turbojet-powered precision attack missile called jackal‘Jackal’ in Spanish. This multipurpose missile can accommodate both lethal and non-lethal payloads and include ISR packets (acronym in English for Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance), electronic warfare equipment and warheads to attack the target. Northrop Grumman has designed Jackal to bring speed, precision and versatility to the United States Armed Forces.
Jackal combines range, speed, endurance, precision and payload capacity, allowing long-duration ISR missions to gather critical information before launching a lethal attackaccording to the manufacturer. Its development has been known since 2022, but at that time it was described as a single-track attack drone that could be launched from ground and air platforms, to which maritime ones have now been added.
Then, Northrop Grumman noted that it was being developed with the idea to fill the gap between propeller-driven kamikaze drones and tactical drones for longer range ISR and electronic warfare missions. The option to carry both a lethal and non-lethal payload, another feature that has now become known, is not common in either missiles or loitering drones.
Jackal has a range of 100 kilometersa maximum speed of 600km/h and can lurk for 15 minutes. The missile’s rapid acceleration is made possible by its turbojet propulsion, allowing it to significantly reduce the time needed to reach the target, compared to propeller-driven weapons.
Next-generation flight controls include the ability to operate in environments without GPS and an automatic targeting system optimized for recognition, acquisition and situational awareness. It is highly maneuverable, has autonomous navigation by reference points and can receive orders in mid-flight to change the objective.
Northrop has developed the missile in collaboration with the American defense firm Aerovironmentcreator of the Loitering Munitions series switchbladefrom which he takes some ideas.
While the Switchblade 300 It is a short-range precision attack weapon, the Switchblade 600 It is primarily designed to penetrate armor. Northrop Grumman’s new next-generation missile has been designed to confront threats beyond the reach of the Switchblade. It has a higher payload capacity of 4.5 kilograms and a greater scope of 100 kilometerscompared to the 10 km and 40km of the Switchblade 300 and 600, respectively.