Article Posted on : - Jul 12, 2013

Long Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM). Photo: Lockheed Martin

ORLANDO, Fla. (BNS): US defence major Lockheed Martin has recently completed a series of Long Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM) captive carry flight advancing the research programme toward its first missile release and free flight test later this year.

The captive carry missions were flown aboard a U S Air Force B-1B from the 337th Test and Evaluation Squadron at Dyess Air Force Base, Texas.

The primary mission objectives were to collect telemetry for post-flight analysis, verify proper control room telemetry displays and simulate all the test activities that will occur in later air-launched flight tests. All test objectives were met, a Company statement said.

The LRASM programme is in development with the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) and the Office of Naval Research. After a competition in 2009, Lockheed Martin's LRASM was selected to demonstrate air- and surface-launched capability to defeat emerging sea-based threats at significant standoff ranges.

LRASM is an autonomous, precision-guided anti-ship standoff missile leveraging the successful Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile Extended Range (JASSM-ER) heritage, and is designed to meet the needs of U S Navy and Air Force warfighters in a robust anti-access/area-denial threat environment.

Armed with a proven 1,000-lb. penetrator and blast-fragmentation warhead, LRASM employs a multi-mode sensor, weapon data link and an enhanced digital anti-jam Global Positioning System to detect and destroy specific targets within a group of ships.

"Collecting telemetry data while flying in the B-1B bomb bay significantly reduces risk ahead of the first launch," said Mike Fleming, LRASM air launch programme manager at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control. "Initial assessments indicate the missile performed as expected."