Pentagon’s No.1 weapons supplier Lockheed Martin Corp, has won a contract valued at as much as $167 million to build a batch of 48 long-range anti-surface cruise missiles (LRASM) and tooling and test equipment.
The DoD said Tuesday that work will be performed in Orlando, Florida, and is expected to be completed April 6, 2023.
The company’s website said the LRASM is a long range, precision-guided anti-ship missile leveraging off of the successful JASSM-ER heritage, and is designed to meet the needs of U.S. Navy and Air Force warfighters.
Armed with a penetrator and blast fragmentation warhead, LRASM employs precision routing and guidance, day or night in all weather conditions. The missile employs a multi-modal sensor suite, weapon data link, and enhanced digital anti-jam Global Positioning System to detect and destroy specific targets within a group of numerous ships at sea.
LRASM will play a significant role in ensuring military access to operate in open ocean/blue waters, owing to its enhanced ability to discriminate and conduct tactical engagements from extended ranges.
Lockheed Martin’s website said the LRASM technology will reduce dependence on ISR platforms, network links, and GPS navigation in aggressive electronic warfare environments. This advanced guidance operation means the weapon can use gross target cueing data to find and destroy its pre-defined target in denied environments. Precision lethality against surface and land targets ensures the system will become an important addition to the US Navy warfighter’s arsenal. LRASM provides range, survivability, and lethality that no other current system provides.
The LRASM successfully completed B-1B integration and flight testing, leading the way to an early operational capability (EOC) declaration by the U.S. Air Force in December 2018.