LRASM Presses On

Lockheed Martin’s Missiles and Fire Control division has received a $321.8 million cost-plus-incentive-fee contract from the Navy to complete design, software and test of the joint-service Long-Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM), a variant of the Air Force’s stealthy AGM-158 Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM). The contract funds completion of design and test work to support fielding the missile on the Air Force B-1B bomber in 2019 and on the F/A-18 in 2020. Lockheed Martin has also demonstrated that the missile can be launched from Navy shipborne vertical launch system (VLS) tubes. Work still to be done includes captive carry, noise and vibration characterization, and safety of flight issues. The contract, awarded May 13, also provides some funding to set up production alongside the existing JASSM/JASSM-ER lines. The program so far has received contracts worth more than $900 million. Company officials have said that the combination of USAF, foreign, and Navy orders will reduce the unit cost of all three variants of the missile, and that the demand has driven an increase in production capacity at the company’s Troy, Ala., plant.