Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control, Orlando, Florida, has been awarded a $167,470,014, fixed-price-incentive-firm and firm-fixed-price contract for 48 Long Range Anti-Ship Missiles and tooling and test equipment. This award is the result of a sole source acquisition. Fiscal 2019 Air Force missile procurement funds in the amount of $52,334,380; and fiscal 2019 Navy weapon procurement funds in the amount of $115,135,634 will be obligated at the time of award. Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, Eglin, Air Force Base, Florida, is the contracting activity. Work will be performed in Orlando, Florida, and is expected to be completed April 6, 2023.
The AGM-158C LRASM (Long Range Anti-Ship Missile) is a stealthy anti-ship cruise missile developed for the United States Air Force and United States Navy by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). The LRASM was intended to pioneer more sophisticated autonomous targeting capabilities than the U.S. Navy’s current Harpoon anti-ship missile, which has been in service since 1977. The LRASM into limited production as an operational weapon in February 2014 as an urgent capability stop-gap solution to address range and survivability problems with the Harpoon and to prioritize defeating enemy warships, which has been neglected since the end of the Cold War.
Lockheed Martin is currently executing on the Accelerated Acquisition contract for the LRASM Deployment Office. This contract is further maturing the technologies that will be delivered as an early operational capability in LRASM for the USAF B-1B and USN F/A-18E/F in 2018 and 2019 respectively. This operational capability will provide our warfighter with the solution to their anti-surface warfare capability gap. Lockheed Martin have begun the integration efforts onto the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet. Fit and mass properties checks were conducted at Pax River Naval Base with the U.S. Navy and captive-carry flight tests took place in 4Q15.
The successful LRASM Boosted Test Vehicle (BTV) flight on 4 Sep ’13 at WSMR Desert Ship Range, demonstrated a LRASM launch from a MK 41 VLS canister using the proven Mk-114 booster. Lockheed Martin is investing in the surface-launch LRASM effort to reduce program risk and accelerate time to fielding an OASuW capability on US Navy surface combatants. LRASM can be employed from DDGs and CGs with only software modifications to existing launch control systems. LRASM is the low-risk and low-cost solution for naval warfighter.
