LRASM: America's Long Range Anti-Ship Missile Is Almost Here

Dave Majumdar

Security, Asia

America might not be "outsticked" by China for much longer when it comes to anti-ship missiles. 

The United States Navy and Lockheed Martin hope to demonstrate the launch of a AGM-158C Long Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM) from a Mk41 vertical launch system onboard one of the service’s cruisers or destroyers in the coming months.

“They [Lockheed] would like to take a Navy ship and do a vertical launch,” Capt. Jamie Engdahl, Naval Air Systems Command program manager for precision strike weapons told an audience at the Navy League’s Sea, Air and Space symposium on May 17. “If I’m guessing right, I think you’ll probably see that happen over the next several months.”

If the Navy were to eventually field the new weapon as a ship-based anti-surface weapon, the LRASM would enormously increase the offensive anti-ship capability resident onboard U.S. Navy surface combatants. The service needs to boost the anti-ship capabilities of its warships in light of a resurgent Russia and an increasingly capable Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy fleet. Indeed, the entire LRASM program is being driven by an urgent operational need in the Western Pacific. As a weapon designed specifically to counter the emerging anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) threats in the region, the stealthy LRASM is extremely long-range, semi-autonomous and does not rely on GPS or data-networks. Engdahl bragged that LRASM is the “smartest weapon” in his portfolio.

Lockheed Martin—which developed the LRASM in conjunction with DARPA from AGM-158B JASSM-ER cruise missile—is taking the lead in the demonstration effort, but the Navy is part of the team, Engdahl said. He noted that the weapon has previously been tested from the Mk41 vertical launcher from a land installation, but the shore environment is quite different from dynamic at-sea conditions.