Tag Archives: Long Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM) program

Air Force Drops $2B (more) on Long Range Strike Game

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From yesterday’s DOD Contract announcements, emphasis mine:

Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control, Orlando, Florida, has been awarded a not-to-exceed $1,925,877,406 firm-fixed-price, undefinitized contract action modification (P00003) to a previously awarded contract (FA8682-24-C-B001) for Joint Air to Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM) Production Lot 23 and Long-Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM) Production Lot Nine, as well as economic order quantity for JASSM Lot 24 and LRASM Lot 10. The modification brings the total cumulative face value of the contract to $5,180,154,533. Work will be performed in Orlando, Florida, and is expected to be completed by July 31, 2029. Fiscal 2024 missile procurement funds (Air Force) in the amount of $684,233,360; fiscal 2025 missile procurement funds (Air Force) in the amount of $612,699,675; and fiscal 2025 weapon procurement funds (Navy) in the amount of $149,250,015, are being obligated at time of award. Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, is the contracting activity.

Lockheed has been steadily ramping up production of JASSM and LRASM, as the long-range strike missiles and ship killers have been vetted for the Air Force’s B-1B and Navy’s F/A-18E/F Super Hornet. B-52, P-8A, F-18C/D, and F-35 are on the way.

In related news, LRASM just began flight tests with F-35Bs at Pax River. The Bravo model is the STOVL that is being used by the Marines expeditionary units.

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Lockheed says more than 1,100 F-35s are currently operational around the globe, and the fleet has surpassed a cool 1 million flight hours. 

Out Harpooning the Harpoon

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Since the late 1970s, the US Navy has relied on the Harpoon missile in its submarine, aircraft, and ship-launched versions to poke holes in the bad guys ships.

Oddly enough, it hasn’t really had to be used in the past forty years. The only time the US Navy sank a foreign ship and a ship-vs-ship engagement that was over the horizon in that period, it did so in the Persian Gulf with a Standard missile, which is technically a SAM.  Notably, in that engagement, the Harpoons that were fired did not find their targets…

But anyway.

DARPA is experimenting with the Harpoons replacement:

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(DARPA and the Office of Naval Research are collaborating on the Long Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM) program, which successfully launched its first prototype on Aug. 27. DARPA designed the free-flight transition test (FFTT) demonstration to verify the prototype’s flight characteristics and assess subsystem and sensor performance. Designed to launch from both ships and planes such as the B-1 bomber, the test vehicle detected, engaged and hit an unmanned 260-foot Mobile Ship Target (MST) with an inert warhead. A black circle indicates where the missile hit and punched straight through the target.)