Jane Edwards
Lockheed Martin conducted an initial flight test of a surface-launch variant of its Long Range Anti-Ship Missile Wednesday at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.
The company said Thursday it used a topside canister with an angled launch platform to deploy the surface-launched LRASM and simulate a ship-launched environment.
LRASM, booster adapter and the Mk-114 booster lifted off from the topside launcher through the use of the Mk-41 Vertical Launch System“™s launch sequencer software during the demonstration.
Lockheed performed the flight test a day after it secured an $86.5 million contract modification to produce LRASMs for the U.S. Air Force.
Scott Callaway, subsonic cruise missile director at Lockheed“™s missiles and fire control business, said the test flight seeks to demonstrate the company“™s readiness to respond to the U.S. Navy“™s demand for anti-surface long-range warfare capabilities under the “Distributed Lethality” concept of operations.
The test also sought to validate LRASM“™s capability to be fired from non-VLS and VLS surface platforms, Callaway added.
LRASM is a precision-guided missile designed to help the Navy and Air Force meet combat requirements in contested environments.
An air-launched variant of LRASM is scheduled for installation aboard the Air Force“™s B-1B bomber in 2018 and on the Navy“™s F/A-18E/F Super Hornet fighter jets in 2019.
