“Delivering the first LWCLUs to the U.S. Army reflects the Javelin Joint Venture’s commitment to continuously advancing technology for service members,” Jenna Hunt Frazier, president of the Javelin Joint Venture and director of the Javelin program at Raytheon, said in a joint release.
Javelin Joint Venture and the LWCLU
Raytheon and Lockheed Martin announced in a joint release that they have delivered the first next‑generation Javelin launcher units — the Lightweight Command Launch Units (LWCLU) — to the U.S. Army. The companies said the LWCLU is intended to replace the Javelin’s legacy launcher. Rich Liccion, JJV vice president and Lockheed Martin Javelin program director, described the production and delivery as “a pivotal step in modernizing the Javelin system for today’s warfighter.”
Technical changes: modern infrared camera, smaller size, backward compatibility
The companies and a Pentagon testing report describe a set of specific technical changes. The LWCLU incorporates modern infrared camera technology that the Pentagon’s 2025 weapons testing report said allows for easier and faster target detection. Raytheon and Lockheed said the new launcher gives soldiers “twice the target detection and recognition” range while reducing the size of the launcher by 30 percent and its weight by 25 percent. The 2025 Pentagon report also said the new launcher is smaller and lighter than the original CLU and noted it is “backward” compatible with both old and new Javelin missiles.
Pentagon testing history: a software fault and its correction
The LWCLU’s path to this delivery included a documented problem. The Pentagon’s 2023 weapons testing report concluded the LWCLU did not meet its reliability requirement during follow‑on operational test and evaluation because of a “new software fault.” After that report, an Army spokesperson told Breaking Defense the software issue was solved in 2024. The Pentagon’s 2025 weapons testing report confirmed the software issue had been fixed.
Fielding timeline: Army desires, Pentagon’s “urgent fielding,” and today’s delivery
Timing has been an explicit part of the public record. The Pentagon’s 2025 weapons testing report said “urgent fielding” of the LWCLU was expected to begin in the second quarter of fiscal 2026. Breaking Defense previously reported that Army leaders had said in 2024 they wanted to begin fielding the first launchers in mid‑fiscal 2025. The joint industry release announcing delivery arrived against that backdrop of differing dates and testing milestones.
Neither Raytheon nor Lockheed Martin responded to requests for comment about how many LWCLUs the Army received, the units’ cost, or which Army units received the launchers. The Army also did not respond to a request confirming the delivery or identifying recipient units.
What this means for soldiers, procurement leaders, and the Army
- Soldiers: The companies and the Pentagon testing report attribute easier and faster target detection, increased detection and recognition range, and reduced weight and size — changes the release and testing documents characterize as improvements to mobility, survivability and tactical utility.
- Procurement leaders: The absence of public figures for quantity and cost leaves procurement managers and budget planners without concrete numbers to reconcile against the Pentagon’s urgent‑fielding language and the Army’s earlier desired schedule.
- The Army: Deliveries now exist in the public record, but the service has not confirmed which units will receive the new launchers nor provided an official schedule for wider distribution following the joint release and the Pentagon testing reports.
The industry announcement and the Pentagon’s testing record together mark a clear technical advance that has completed at least one cycle of testing and correction. They also leave practical questions in plain view: how many units have been delivered, at what cost, and where the launchers will be placed in the force. Those are the next concrete data points that will determine whether the LWCLU’s early promise translates into wider, measurable change in the field.
