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.)
The $4.26 billion Small Business Innovation Research contracting program widely used by the Air Force went into hibernation as the government shut down Oct. 1, but unless lawmakers strike a deal on reforms, the program could reach an abrupt end.
