LRASM For USN and RAAF F/A-18Fs

New anti-ship missile to proliferate in region LRASM

BY ANDREW McLAUGHLIN

DEFENCE

Australia has been approved by the US State Department to acquire the Lockheed Martin AGM158C long-range anti-ship missile (LRASM).

The proposed deal for up to 200 LRASMs was announced on February 7 by the US Defense and Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA), and is valued at an estimated US$990m (A$1.49bn). If contracted, LRASM will meet the Project AIR 3023 Phase 1 enhanced maritime strike requirement to equip the RAAF’s Super Hornet, and possibly the Lockheed Martin F-35A and the Boeing P-8A Poseidon with an anti-ship missile.

A typical Super Hornet LRASM loadout would be two missiles on wing stations, although the jet can carry four LRASMs if no external fuel tanks are carried. The F-35A is yet to be cleared to employ LRASM, but the US Navy plans to integrate it with the F-35C version and, despite the C model’s larger wingspan, much of the integration and stores release work should be transferrable to the F-35A if the RAAF decides to go down that road.

The DSCA approval also includes 11 ATM-158C LRASM Telemetry Variants, DATM-158C LRASM Captive Air Training Missiles (CATM), as well as extensive technical and logistic support services. Telemetry missiles do not have a warhead, but can be fired against dummy or virtual targets to validate datalinks, sensor performance, and target discrimination. CATMs are not launched and do not have an engine or warhead, but can be integrated with an aircraft’s combat system to provide targeting and pre-launch training, and for aerodynamic test work. The DSCA announcement came just a few weeks after the US Navy achieved an early operational capability (EOC) milestone of LRASM on the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet. Already cleared for service on the USAF B-1B Lancer in December 2018, the LRASM adds a new long-range anti-ship capability to the US Navy and possibly the RAAF, both of which currently rely on the AGM-84 Harpoon as their primary air-launched anti-ship missile.

Based on the low-observable AGM-158A JASSM as operated by the USAF and RAAF, and its longer-range AGM-158B JASSMER derivative, the jet-powered LRASM has a range of more than 500km. It uses an advanced multi-mode sensor, datalinks, anti-jam GPS, and a ship recognition database to discriminate between adversaries and friendly or non-combatant vessels, and has a 1,000lb blast fragmentation warhead.

“LRASM will play a significant role in ensuring military access to operate in the Pacific and in the littorals by providing a long-range surface warfare capability,” a US Navy spokesman told Navy News. Apart from AIR 3023 Phase1, LRASM is also a contender for the Project SEA 4100 Phase 1 program to equip the new Hobart class DDGs and Hunter class FFGs with a long-range surfacelaunched anti-ship missile.

The US Navy is developing a ship-launched version of LRASM that can be employed from the Mk41 vertical launch system (VLS) as used on the Hobart class and slated for the Hunter class. The RAN is likely to also consider the KONGSBERG Naval Strike Missile (NSM), while the RAAF has also shown interest in the air-launched Joint Strike Missile (JSM) version of the NSM.

The DSCA announcement came just a week after the US Navy’s PMA-290 P-8 program office requested solicitations from industry to integrate the LRASM and other advanced weapons with the P-8A.

Currently cleared to employ the Harpoon from four wings pylons, and mines and torpedos from fuselage stations and a small internal weapons bay, the addition of two or possibly four LRASMs to the P-8’s arsenal would dramatically extend that aircraft’s anti-ship warfare reach.

Other weapons reportedly under consideration for the P-8A include the ADM160 miniature air launched decoy (MALD) – an air-launched missile with an electronic warfare suite that enables it to electronically mimic other aircraft types or to electronically disrupt adversary radar or communications systems. Also planned are the GBU-53/B Stormbreaker small diameter bomb and BRU-55 bomb rack, new versions of the JDAM and Mk62/63/65 series of mines, and the Universal Armament Interface (UAI) – a systems designed to allow new weapons to be integrated with an aircraft without having to update the aircraft’s operational flight program (OFP).

The US Navy’s NAVAIR indicated in a January release that integration work will commence in 2021 and is expected to take up to five years as part of a broader program to expand the aircraft’s mission-set against modern adversary maritime developments.

With Australia a cooperative development partner on the P-8A program and expected to stay in lockstep with the US Navy on spiral upgrade developments, it is likely many of these weapons systems will find their way onto RAAF P-8As as they are cleared. The RAAF took delivery of the last of its current order for 12 P-8As on December 12 when the aircraft arrived at its home base of Edinburgh near Adelaide, just three years after the first P-8A arrived in-country in November 2016. The 12 P-8As were ordered in three batches each of four aircraft, and Australia retains options for an additional three P-8As which are yet to be confirmed.

Hot on the heels of the Australian approval to acquire LRASM,

Japan also announced its intention to acquire the missile for its soon-to-be refurbished fleet of F-15J fighters.

A January 27 article in Jane’s quotes a Japanese Defense Ministry official as saying the LRASM would be acquired as a “stand-off defense capability” as part of that country’s Mid-Term Defense Program. Japan has also committed to buy the KONGSBERG JSM to equip its F-35A fighters, although this weapon can be carried internally in the stealthy F-35, whereas the larger LRASM is an externallycarried weapon.

With its advanced targeting, large warhead and low-observable design, LRASM will likely be highly-effective against enemy warships in any future conflict. But one element it lacks compared to the latest Chinese and Russian anti-ship systems is speed, with these adversary systems now capable of high supersonic or even hypersonic speeds including in the terminal phase of flight, whereas the LRASM is subsonic.

These high speeds not only provide for shorter flight times from launch, but they also make these systems much harder to react to and intercept by kinetic or laser-based defensive systems. ‘...two or possibly four LRASMs to the P-8’s arsenal would dramatically extend that aircraft’s anti-ship warfare reach.’

LRASM uses ship-recognition software to avoid friendly and non-combatant vessels. LOCKHEED MARTIN