US Military News, Reports, Data, etc.

Jura said:

I guess it depends on the actual ROE, I mean there's no doubt the gunner would hit IF (s)he was ordered to shoot at the vessel though

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Jeff Head said:

OUTSTANDING!

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designers at Lockheed Martin Corp. are starting to manufacture the U.S. military's next-generation LRASM

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-- the Long-Range Anti-Ship Missile (

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).

Officials of the U.S. Air Force Life Cycle Management Center at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., announced an $86.5 million contract Tuesday to manufacture the first 23 LRASM munitions in Lot 1 production. The contract marks the first production award for the air-launched variant of LRASM, Lockheed Martin officials say.

Low-rate initial production (LRIP) Lot 1 is the first of several expected annual production lots that will deliver next-generation anti-ship missiles to the U.S. Navy and U.S. Air Force, company officials say.

LRASM is a joint project of the U.S. Defense Advanced Projects Agency (DARPA) in Arlington, Va., the Navy, and Air Force to design an advanced anti-ship missile that can launch from the Navy F/A-18E/F Super Hornet jet fighter bomber, as well as from the Air Force B-1B Lancer long-range bomber.

LRASM is designed to detect and destroy specific targets within groups of ships from extended ranges in electronic warfare environments. It is a precision-guided, anti-ship standoff missile based on the Lockheed Martin Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile-Extended Range (JASSM-ER).

Eventually versions of the LRASM also should be ready for launch by the Vertical Launch System (VLS) aboard Navy surface warships. Submarine-launched versions are under consideration.

Lockheed Martin has been designing LRASM for the last eight years primarily under DARPA supervision. The advanced anti-ship missile is intended to replace the ageing Harpoon anti-ship missile. It has a multi-mode radio frequency sensor, a new weapon data-link and altimeter, and an uprated power system.

The LRASM can be guided toward enemy ships from as far away as 200 nautical miles by its launch aircraft, can receive updates via its datalink, or can use onboard sensors to find its target. LRASM will fly towards its target at medium altitude then drop to low altitude for a sea skimming approach to counter shipboard anti-missile defenses.

The LRASM will use on-board targeting systems to acquire the target independently without the presence of intelligence or supporting services like Global Positioning System satellite navigation and data-links. Lockheed Martin is designing he missile with advanced counter-countermeasures to evade hostile active defense systems.

Lockheed Martin won a $321.8 million Navy contract last year to complete LRASM integration, test, and integration; incorporate an affordable and executable LRASM manufacturing process into Lockheed Martin's existing JASSM-ER production process; examine and define the logistics footprint; design for producibility; ensure affordability; add anti-tamper and cyber security; and demonstrate system integration, interoperability, safety, and utility.

Lockheed Martin has conducted LRASM flight tests against surrogate targets from the Navy, with an eye to deploying LRASM on the B-1B bomber in 2018, and on the F/A-18E/F in 2019.

In fall 2014 Lockheed Martin conducted its second LRASM flight test in a launch from an Air Force B-1B bomber off the Southern California coast. Flying over the sea range at Point Mugu, Calif., the bomber from the 337th Test and Evaluation Squadron at Dyess Air Force Base, Texas, released the LRASM, which navigated through all planned waypoints receiving in-flight targeting updates from the system's Weapon Data Link, Lockheed Martin officials say.

After switching to autonomous guidance, the LRASM identified the target using inputs from the onboard sensors, descended for final approach, verified the target, and hit it.

The Lockheed Martin LRASM has a 1,000-pound penetrator and blast-fragmentation warhead, multi-mode sensor, weapon data link, and enhanced digital anti-jam global positioning system to detect and destroy selected surface targets within groups of ships.

Lockheed Martin is in charge of LRASM overall development, and the BAE Systems Electronic Systems segment in Nashua, N.H., is developing the LRASM onboard sensor systems.

LRASM development is in response to a gap in Navy anti-ship missile technology identified in 2008. The standard Navy anti-ship missile is the subsonic Harpoon, which has been in the inventory since 1977.

On this contract Lockheed Martin will do its work in Orlando, Fla., and should be finished by September 2019.

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Jeff Head said:

OUTSTANDING!

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When an F/A-18E/F Super Hornet took down a Syrian Sukhoi Su-22 in June — the U.S. military’s first air-to-air kill in nearly 20 years — it launched an AIM-120 AMRAAM missile, a mainstay of the Navy and Air Force’s weapons inventory since it came online in the early 1990s.


But after decades of continued production, the AMRAAM is facing obsolescence problems, and Raytheon, its manufacturer, has fallen behind on a technology refresh due to problems developing an integrated circuit.

The AMRAAM’s obsolescence upgrade, called Form, Fit, Function Refresh (F3R), affects 15 circuit cards that comprise about half of the missile’s guidance section, according to Air Force documents obtained by Defense News. The key component at fault for the delays is the application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a processor that will be used to execute the missile’s software, the Air Force confirmed in response to emailed questions.

The Air Force and Navy are hopeful that Raytheon can resolve design issues connected to ASIC, which has required more troubleshooting than expected to meet objectives. However, both services have cut their planned buy for fiscal year 2018 by hundreds of missiles, and a key test has been delayed by more than a year.

Raytheon is responsible for designing ASIC, which will eventually be fabricated by one of the company’s suppliers. No other alternatives for this component exist, the Air Force said.

“There was an issue with one component that was critical to the upgrade that delayed us a bit, and we had to re-plan elements of that,” Mike Jarrett, Raytheon’s vice president of air warfare systems, said during a June interview at Paris Air Show.

While Jarrett said the company had figured out a fix and that “everything is on track,” he declined to specify how Raytheon had solved the problem, citing customer sensitivities.

The Air Force was more loquacious. To bridge production in the short term, Raytheon will need to make modifications to the current navigation assembly, which contains obsolete parts that can no longer be purchased, the service said.

Raytheon is also designing a new simulator to drive down risk.

“Once the simulation has been used to assess performance against program requirements, there will be sufficient data available to make a fabrication go-ahead decision,” the Air Force said.

In the best case scenario, a working F3R guidance section will complete the Interim Test Readiness Review — a key assessment of whether the F3R modifications meet requirements — in January 2019, a full year and a half after the initial July 2017 target date.

That delay effects other key dates. Raytheon will now cut the F3R changes into its production line in FY2019, according to budget documents, with first deliveries taking place in FY2021.

As a result of the lagging progress on F3R, both the Air Force and Navy opted to slow roll their AMRAAM acquisition in fiscal 2018.

Compared to the five year plan put forward with the fiscal year 2017 budget, the Air Force FY2018 budget request includes 183 fewer AMRAAM missiles for that year. The 2017 Future Years Defense Plan (FYDP) shows the Air Force buying 388 AMRAAMs in 2018, but the service ended up requesting only 205 missiles.

The Navy similarly opted to request a smaller number of AMRAAMs in FY18 than it believed it would need in FY17. Its FYDP in 2017 predicted the service would request 247 AMRAAMs in FY18. Instead, it intends to buy only 120 units in 2018 — less than half of its planned order.

Both the Navy and Air Force plan to increase their buy rate in FY19, when the F3R upgrades are slated to be finalized. But in June, Lt. Gen. Arnold Bunch, the Air Force’s top uniformed acquisition official, told Defense News that he wants to see Raytheon improve its performance before increasing funding for more AMRAAMs.

“I need to see the program progress before I would procure more weapons,” he said in a June interview. “It’s very complicated. We know it’s very complicated. [Raytheon is] committed to taking care of it, but I’m just not comfortable right now that I would want to put additional procurement [funds] into it and put more stress on what I’m already trying to do.”

Members of Congress have made note of the lower quantities, but service officials have made clear they have no intention of throwing money at the problem. At a House Armed Services Committee hearing in June, Rep. Tom O’Halleran, D-Ariz., asked about whether issues could be resolved by funneling additional dollars into the program.

“If Congress were to add funding, could it be used to buy more missiles, or are you limited by where things are with the production?” he asked Air Force and Navy officials.

Bunch told O’Halleran that he wanted to see Raytheon work through its difficulties with F3R, before increasing the AMRAAM budget line.

“Once we get that on track, I’d be willing to come down and ask you for additional help,” he said. “We would love to buy more, sir, but I need them to get the production right because if we buy too many more and run out of parts on the line, then we don’t have the ability to produce [them].”

"From the department of the Navy's perspective, we're in exactly the same place," said Vice Adm. Paul Grosklags, head of Naval Air Systems Command.

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Equation said:

Even if their are few infos on China military equipment is not due to "delicate" but rather more classified. It's not China's job or anyone for that matter to appease to even the most credible Military Magazines.

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It is not the general consensus or in Tabloids or similars sure not in serious Military Magazines even French i read never see main reasons are China is new in this " top club " added to the opacity they provide very few infos after some Chinese people are very " delicate "

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Jura said:

it's about time! I've heard certain nations now are able to guide OTH AShMs right from ships (without the need for mid-course correction typically done by a helo) presumably by X-band using

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and stuff ... if it's true (and on this occasion I don't post links), the USN would need LRASMs in VLS already (don't know when it's even planned) ...

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Lockheed Martin successfully conducted the first-ever launch July 26 of the Long Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM) surface-launch variant from a topside canister, the company said in a July 27 release.

The flight test, at White Sands Missile Range, N.M., proved the missile’s ability to conduct an angled launch from the newly designed topside canister, replicating a ship-launched environment. During the test, the LRASM, its Mk114 booster and booster adapter ejected cleanly from the topside launcher using the same launch control and launch sequencer software currently employed by the Mk41 Vertical Launch System (VLS).

“This successful flight test demonstrates Lockheed Martin’s readiness to answer the U.S. Navy’s call for lethal, longer range anti-surface warfare capabilities as part of the ‘Distributed Lethality’ concept,” said Scott Callaway, Subsonic Cruise Missile director at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control. “This test also validates the flexibility and versatility of LRASM, as it proved it can be successfully fired from VLS and non-VLS surface platforms.”

Integrating LRASM onto surface ships enables distributed operations beyond enemy threat ranges. Along with the already proven VLS launch capability of LRASM, this topside canister with an angled launcher allows the LRASM surface-launch variant to be employed aboard various platforms in the Navy’s surface fleet, providing the potential for a powerful new anti-ship role under the Distributed Lethality concept of operations.

The LRASM surface-launch variant is built on the same production line as Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM), JASSM-ER (extended range) and LRASM air-launch weapons, delivering the same long-range, precision capability while benefiting from manufacturing efficiencies.

LRASM is a precision-guided anti-ship missile that leverages the successful JASSM-ER heritage, and is designed to meet the needs of U.S. Navy and Air Force warfighters in a robust contested environment. The air-launched variant provides an early operational capability for the Navy’s offensive anti-surface warfare Increment I requirement to be integrated onto the U.S. Air Force’s B-1B in 2018 and on the U.S. Navy’s F/A-18E/F Super Hornet in 2019.

In a separate release June 26, Lockheed Martin also announced it has received an $86.5 million contract from the U.S. Navy and Air Force for LRASM production. The contract marks the first production award for the air-launched variant of LRASM, and includes 23 missiles and engineering support.

Low-rate initial production Lot 1 is the first of several expected annual production lots that will deliver next-generation anti-ship missiles to the U.S. Navy and U.S. Air Force.

“This first production lot of LRASM brings a new level of capability to both the U.S. Air Force and the Navy,” said Mike Fleming, LRASM director at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control. “LRASM enables our warfighters to prosecute even the most advanced enemy ships.”

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