Tag Archives: LRASM

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.

BF-3 flt 752 WAC Envelope Expansion

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. 

It’s really happening…

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When the LCS was first proposed under the Streetfighter concept back in the day, everyone looked at the idea and thought it had at least some merit, especially for sea control with a growing number of surface challenges from in the Persian Gulf and South China Sea. But sea control involves having something bigger than a 57mm popgun and some 25’s to punch a hole in something over-the-horizon.

Well it looked like in the latest RIMPAC exercise, an LCS has finally gotten a Harpoon in the air. Of course it looks like a limited installation (topside weight issues?) such as seen on the Hamilton-class Coast Guard cutters of the 1990s, but it is still a Harpoon.

160719-N-ZZ999-007 USS CORONADO (July 19, 2016) USS Coronado (LCS 4), an Independence-variant littoral combat ship, launches the first over-the-horizon missile engagement using a Harpoon Block 1C missile. Twenty-six nations, 40 ships and submarines, more than 200 aircraft and 25,000 personnel are participating in RIMPAC from June 30 to Aug. 4, in and around the Hawaiian Islands and Southern California. The world's largest international maritime exercise, RIMPAC provides a unique training opportunity that helps participants foster and sustain the cooperative relationships that are critical to ensuring the safety of sea lanes and security on the world's oceans. RIMPAC 2016 is the 25th exercise in the series that began in 1971. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Michaela Garrison/Released)

160719-N-ZZ999-007 USS CORONADO (July 19, 2016) USS Coronado (LCS 4), an Independence-variant littoral combat ship, launches the first over-the-horizon missile engagement using a Harpoon Block 1C missile. Twenty-six nations, 40 ships and submarines, more than 200 aircraft and 25,000 personnel are participating in RIMPAC from June 30 to Aug. 4, in and around the Hawaiian Islands and Southern California. The world’s largest international maritime exercise, RIMPAC provides a unique training opportunity that helps participants foster and sustain the cooperative relationships that are critical to ensuring the safety of sea lanes and security on the world’s oceans. RIMPAC 2016 is the 25th exercise in the series that began in 1971. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Michaela Garrison/Released)

USS Coronado (LCS 4) launches harpoon missile during RIMPAC 2

However, all may not be Harpoon forever.

On Monday Lockheed Martin completed the third of three test shots to prove that their air-launched 500-nm range Long Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM) can be fired from a surface ship on the move, launching from a Mk41 installed on the ex-USS Paul Foster off Point Magu.

In other news, it seems like the target for the SINKEX was the recently retired OHP frigate USS Thach which took a hell of a lot of abuse as did USS Crommelin (FFG 37), who was Coronado‘s (missed) target. Rather a poetic statement come to think of it.

Meanwhile, the latest Independence-class LCS, USS Jackson, was the subject of explosive shock testing so serious that the USGS thought it was a 3.7m earthquake.