Lockheed Martin and the Air Force recently completed a series of captive-carry flight tests of the company’s Long Range Anti-Ship Missile design on a B-1 bomber, announced the company. The tests, which took place off the southern California coast, supported preparations for the planned first release and free flight of LRASM later this year, states the company’s July 11 release. “Collecting telemetry data while flying in the B-1B bomb bay significantly reduces risk ahead of the first launch,” said Mike Fleming, Lockheed Martin’s LRASM air launch program manager. “Initial assessments indicate the missile performed as expected,” he said. The company is developing LRASM—a variant of its JASSM stealthy cruise missile—under DARPA and Navy sponsorship. (See also Let Us Compete.)
A legislative standoff has led to a lapse in a $4.26 billion small business innovation contracting program widely used by the Air Force and could spell the end of it entirely, industry sources warned Air & Space Forces Magazine.
