While the Pentagon’s AirSea Battle Office has no official role in the testing and development of the Long Range Anti-Ship Missile design and its integration on the B-1 bomber, the office is working closely with the services and the combatant commands to align concepts like the missile with the principles of ASB, said office spokesman Christopher Krisinger. The office’s connection is in more “broad, conceptual ways,” Krisinger told the Daily Report on July 18. Long-range strike is a core mission of the Air Force, and because the ASB concept has the support of Air Force and Navy leadership, the ASB office has worked to educate major commands and units on the fundamentals of ASB, he said. “Units, commands then can develop their own [concepts of operation], concepts, and practices to operationalize those principles,” said Krisinger. The ASB office “advocates for, facilitates, and monitors such developments like the B-1 test” as well as provides “top cover” for the Air Force and Navy to conduct similar experiments and exercises, he said. Lockheed Martin is maturing the LRASM design under DARPA and Navy sponsorship.
House and Senate lawmakers say they’re hopeful Congress will pass a defense appropriations bill in the coming weeks to avoid a repeat of last fall’s government shutdown, with only having a handful of working days remaining before the Jan. 30 deadline. Yet legislations still have to release a compromise version of defense spending legislation, which will have to…
