OREANDA-NEWS. Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) has received a $321.8 million sole-source contract from the U.S. Navy for the continuation of the Long Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM) integration and test phase.  

The integration and test contract funds continuation of LRASM flight testing and integration onto the U.S. Air Force B-1B and the U.S. Navy F/A-18E/F aircraft. LRASM early operational capability for the U.S. Air Force and Navy is expected in 2018 and 2019 respectively.

“The LRASM team has successfully met all requirements on an accelerated acquisition timeline in an effort to give our warfighters a much-needed robust, anti-ship capability,” said Mike Fleming, LRASM program director at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control. “LRASM will give warfighters the ability to engage in previously denied battle environments.”

LRASM was selected as the Increment I solution for the Offensive Anti-surface Warfare (OASuW) program. After a competition in 2009, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency selected Lockheed Martin’s LRASM to provide a demonstration of OASuW air-launched capability to defeat emerging sea-based threats at significant standoff ranges. The success of that demonstration prompted initiation of an accelerated acquisition program, which is now led by the U.S. Navy.

LRASM is a precision-guided anti-ship standoff missile leveraging Lockheed Martin’s successful Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile Extended Range heritage, and is designed to meet the needs of U.S. Navy and Air Force warfighters in an advanced anti-access/area-denial threat environment.

Armed with a proven 1,000-pound penetrator and blast-fragmentation warhead, LRASM employs a multi-mode sensor, weapon data link and an enhanced digital anti-jam Global Positioning System to detect and destroy specific targets within a group of ships.

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About Lockheed Martin
Headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, Lockheed Martin is a global security and aerospace company that employs approximately 125,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services.