LRASM, long range anti ship missile. Besides being extremely stealthy and therefore hard to detect and engage, it will pioneer tracking and engagement in a GPS denied area. This means it will passively sniff out enemy ships and it's defenses, autonomously evading enemy defense and targeting the capital ship inside an enemy's battle group. This hasn't been done yet and is rightly considered a game changer.
The Navy was authorized by the Pentagon to put the LRASM into limited production as an operational weapon in February 2014 as an urgent capability stop-gap solution to address range and survivability problems with the Harpoon and to prioritize defeating enemy warships, which has been neglected since the end of the Cold War but taken on importance with the modernization of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy.
Competitors to Lockheed Martin protested the decision to award them a contract given the circumstances of selection and competition for the missile. The Navy responded by saying Lockheed's LRASM program was limited in scope, the decision to move ahead with them was made after an initial DARPA contract award, and that it was an urgent need to face future threats.
The Navy will hold a competition for the Offensive Anti-Surface Warfare (OASuW)/Increment 2 anti-ship missile as a follow-on to LRASM to enter service in 2024.[10] The OASuW Increment 2 competition will be completely open and start by FY 2017.[11] It is expected the LRASM will compete against the joint Kongsberg/Raytheon offering of the Joint Strike Missile (JSM) for air-launch needs and an upgraded RaytheonTomahawk cruise missile for surface-launch needs.[12]
In August 2015, the missile was officially designated AGM-158C.[13]
AGM-158C LRASM
Foreign interest
Sweden has publicly expressed interest in the LRASM in response to concerns of Russian actions in Eastern Europe.[56] The United Kingdom, Singapore, Canada, Australia and Japan have also expressed interest in the missile.[57][58] On 7 February 2020, the US State Department announced it had approved a possible Foreign Military Sale to Australia of up to 200 LRASMs and related equipment for an estimated cost of US$990 million.[59] In July 2020, Australia announced that it was acquiring the LRASM for their F/A-18F Super Hornet fighters.[60]
