Lockheed Martin Successfully Completes First LRASM Captive Carriage Test

Gestart door jurrien visser (JuVi op Twitter), 17/07/2012 | 13:51 uur

Sparkplug

Next-Generation Anti-Ship Missile Achieves Operational Capability with Super Hornets

https://news.usni.org/2019/12/19/next-generation-anti-ship-missile-achieves-operational-capability-with-super-hornets


An F/A-18E flying with a black LRASM missile. Lockheed Martin Photo
A fighter without a gun . . . is like an airplane without a wing.

-- Brigadier General Robin Olds, USAF.

Sparkplug

LRASM set to Achieve EOC with U.S. Navy's F/A-18E/F Super Hornet

https://www.navalnews.com/naval-news/2019/09/lrasm-set-to-achieve-eoc-with-u-s-navys-f-a-18e-f-super-hornet/


An F/A-18E/F Super Hornet will be able to deploy up to 4x LRASM. Lockheed Martin picture.
A fighter without a gun . . . is like an airplane without a wing.

-- Brigadier General Robin Olds, USAF.

Sparkplug

Navy moves Long-Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM) project forward to integration and test

By John Keller


Navy moves Long-Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM) project forward to integration and test

PATUXENT RIVER NAS, Md., 16 May 2016. Smart munitions designers at Lockheed Martin Corp. will fine-tune their design for the U.S. Navy's next-generation LRASM anti-ship missile with a $321.8 million integration and test phase contract announced Friday.

Officials of the Naval Air Systems Command at Patuxent River Naval Air Station, Md., are asking the Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control segment in Orlando, Fla., to complete integration and test of the Long Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM).

LRASM is a joint project of the U.S. Defense Advanced Projects Agency (DARPA) in Arlington, Va., the Navy, and U.S. Air Force to design an advanced anti-ship missile that can be launched from the Navy F/A-18E/F Super Hornet jet fighter bomber, as well as from the Air Force B-1 Lancer long-range bomber.

Pentagon leaders say they hope to start buying production models of the LRASM as early as next year. Eventually versions of the mission also should be ready for launch by the Vertical Launch System (VLS) aboard Navy surface warships. Submarine-launched versions are under consideration.

Lockheed Martin has been designing LRASM for the last seven years primarily under DARPA supervision. The advanced anti-ship missile is intended to replace the ageing Harpoon anti-ship missile.

Related: Military researchers move forward with LRASM anti-ship missile project for next-gen naval munition

Lockheed Martin designers have based LRASM on the AGM-158B Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile – Extended Range (JASSM-ER). LRASM has a multi-mode radio frequency sensor, a new weapon data-link and altimeter, and an uprated power system.

The LRASM integration and test phase determines the quality of the system as it performs under a wide variety of conditions so that designers can uncover and fix defects early in the process. The earlier a defect is found in the development process the less expensive the fix, experts say, and reduces risks such as schedule delays or cost overruns.

The LRASM can be guided toward enemy ships from as far away as 200 nautical miles by its launch aircraft, as well as receive updates via its datalink, or use onboard sensors to find its target. LRASM will fly towards its target at medium altitude then drop to low altitude for a sea skimming approach to counter anti-missile defenses.

The LRASM will use on-board targeting systems to acquire the target independently without the presence of prior, precision intelligence, or supporting services like Global Positioning System satellite navigation and data-links. The missile will be designed with advanced counter-countermeasures to evade hostile active defense systems.

Friday's Navy contract calls for Lockheed Martin to finish all the LRASM's remaining hardware and software detailed design; retiring any open risks; verify compliance with requirements; and prepare LRASM for production and deployment.

This integration and test phase also completes full system integration; incorporates an affordable and executable LRASM manufacturing process into Lockheed Martin's existing JASSM-ER production process; examines and defines the logistics footprint; designs for producibility; ensures affordability; adds anti-tamper and cyber security; and demonstrates system integration, interoperability, safety, and utility, Navy officials say.

Lockheed Martin has conducted additional LRASM flight tests against surrogate targets from the Navy, with an eye to deploying LRASM on the B-1B bomber in 2018, and on the F/A-18E/F in 2019.

In fall 2014 Lockheed Martin conducted its second LRASM flight test in a launch from an Air Force B-1B bomber off the Southern California coast. Flying over the sea range at Point Mugu, Calif., a the B-1B bomber from the 337th Test and Evaluation Squadron at Dyess Air Force Base, Texas, released the LRASM, which navigated through all planned waypoints receiving in-flight targeting updates from the system's Weapon Data Link, Lockheed Martin officials say.

After switching to autonomous guidance, the LRASM identified the target using inputs from the onboard sensors, descended for final approach, verified the target, and hit it.

Related: Demonstration of new anti-ship missile nears end with $175 million contract to Lockheed Martin

The Lockheed Martin LRASM has a 1,000-pound penetrator and blast-fragmentation warhead, multi-mode sensor, weapon data link, and enhanced digital anti-jam global positioning system to detect and destroy selected surface targets within groups of ships.

Lockheed Martin is in charge of LRASM overall development, and the BAE Systems Electronic Systems segment in Nashua, N.H., is developing the LRASM onboard sensor systems. The Office of Naval Research (ONR) in Arlington, Va., also has been involved in LRASM development.

LRASM development is in response to a gap in Navy anti-ship missile technology identified in 2008. The standard Navy anti-ship missile is the subsonic Harpoon, which has been in the inventory since 1977.

On this contract Lockheed Martin will do its work in Orlando and Ocala, Fla.; and in Troy, Ala.; , and should be finished by August, 2019. For more information contact Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control online at www.lockheedmartin.com/us/mfc, or Naval Air Systems Command at www.navair.navy.mil.



http://www.militaryaerospace.com/articles/2016/05/lrasm-anti-ship-missile.html
A fighter without a gun . . . is like an airplane without a wing.

-- Brigadier General Robin Olds, USAF.

Sparkplug

Even 'wat' stof afblazen.

Lockheed's ship-killing missile completes load testing on F/A-18

By James Drew, Washington DC | 08 January 2016

The US Navy has completed load testing of the Lockheed Martin-built long-range anti-ship missile, or LRASM, on the Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet and will now move to noise and vibration trials.

The final flight carrying an inert "mass simulant vehicle" occurred on 6 January over the navy's Patuxent River, Maryland test site, according to Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR).

A ship-destroying derivative of Lockheed's extended-range AGM-158B "JASSM" air-to-surface cruise missile, the weapon is being certified for carriage on the F/A-18E/F and Boeing B-1B.

LRASM programme manager Capt Timothy Hill tells Flightglobal in a statement today that the next stage of flight certification will begin later this month. Those noise and vibration tests will employ the same test missile in tandem with another "instrumented measurement vehicle" to collect data.


A Boeing F/A-18 carries the LRASM "mass simulant vehicle" on 6 January.
US Navy

A separate statement from Mike Fleming, Lockheed's air-launched LRASM director, confirms that the programme aims to achieve early operational capability on the F/A-18E/F in 2019.

Weapons will begin dropping from aircraft in "early 2017," adds Hill. Those jettison tests will precede live-fire trials, assuming things go smoothly.

"Live-fire tests are planned in 2017 with the B-1B and continue through F/A-18E/F early operational capability in 2019," he says.

The programme aims to have LRASMs loaded out on an initial tranche of B-1Bs approximately one year earlier, in 2018. The aircraft has already launched several rounds during early prototype testing against a target ship in 2013.


B-1B deploys LRASM during developmental testing in 2013.
US Air Force

The weapon could turn the supersonic B-1B into one the most formidable aircraft in a maritime war, capable of carrying 24 LRASM cruise missiles, according to the air force.

The bomber, built in the 1980s to counter Russia, has earned its stripes in Afghanistan, Iraq and more recently Syria. It could eventually play an outsized role in the Pacific theatre.

Once deployed, LRASM will be the navy's most sophisticated air-launched, data-linked anti-ship missile, designed to find targets among flotillas and survive electromagnetic disruption.

It was created to meet the navy's air-launched offensive anti-surface warfare (OASuW) capability gap, and now Lockheed and other missile makers are preparing follow-on designs for an upcoming OASuW Increment II competition.

https://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/lockheeds-ship-killing-missile-completes-load-testi-420661/
A fighter without a gun . . . is like an airplane without a wing.

-- Brigadier General Robin Olds, USAF.

jurrien visser (JuVi op Twitter)

Lockheed Martin Conducts Second Successful LRASM Flight Test

ORLANDO, Fla., Nov. 14, 2013 – Lockheed Martin's [NYSE: LMT] Long Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM) recently achieved another successful flight test, with the missile scoring a direct hit on a moving maritime target.

The test was conducted in support of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and Office of Naval Research (ONR) program.   

Flying over the Sea Range at Point Mugu, Calif., a U.S. Air Force B-1B bomber from the 337th Test and Evaluation Squadron at Dyess Air Force Base, Texas, released the LRASM, which navigated through all planned waypoints receiving in-flight targeting updates from the Weapon Data Link. After transitioning to autonomous guidance, LRASM identified the target using inputs from the onboard sensors. The missile then descended for final approach, verified and impacted the target.

"This test, combined with the success of the first flight test in August, further demonstrates the capabilities and maturity of LRASM," said Mike Fleming, LRASM air launch program manager at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control. "The new sensors and legacy JASSM-ER components all performed well during the flight and the missile impacted the target as planned."

LRASM is an autonomous, precision-guided anti-ship standoff missile leveraging the successful Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile Extended Range (JASSM-ER) heritage, and is designed to meet the needs of U.S. Navy and Air Force warfighters in a robust anti-access/area-denial threat environment. JASSM-ER, which recently completed its operational test program, provides a significant number of parts and assembly-process synergies with LRASM, which results in cost savings for the U.S. Navy and Air Force (air- and surface-launched) Offensive Anti-Surface Warfare programs.

The tactically-representative LRASM is built on the same award-winning production line in Pike County, Ala., as JASSM-ER, demonstrating manufacturing and technology readiness levels sufficient to enter the engineering, manufacturing and development phase to satisfy an urgent operational need.

After a competition in 2009, Lockheed Martin's LRASM was selected to demonstrate air- and surface-launched capability to defeat emerging sea-based threats at significant standoff ranges.

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.

Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control is a 2012 recipient of the U.S. Department of Commerce's Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award for performance excellence. The Malcolm Baldrige Award represents the highest honor that can be awarded to American companies for achievement in leadership, strategic planning, customer relations, measurement, analysis, workforce excellence, operations and business results.

Headquartered in Bethesda, Md., Lockheed Martin is a global security and aerospace company that employs about 116,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration, and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products, and services. The Corporation's net sales for 2012 were $47.2 billion.

http://www.lockheedmartin.com/us/news/press-releases/2013/november/mfc-111413-conducts-second-successful-lrasm-flight-test.html

jurrien visser (JuVi op Twitter)


Lockheed Martin Completes Captive Carry Tests with LRASM, Future U.S. Air Force and Navy Missile

ORLANDO, Fla., July 11, 2013 – Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT] recently completed a series of Long Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM) captive carry flight tests at the Sea Range in Point Mugu, Calif., advancing the research program toward its first missile release and free flight test later this year.

The captive carry missions were flown aboard a U.S. Air Force B-1B from the 337th Test and Evaluation Squadron at Dyess Air Force Base, Texas. The primary mission objectives were to collect telemetry for post-flight analysis, verify proper control room telemetry displays and simulate all the test activities that will occur in later air-launched flight tests. All test objectives were met.

"Collecting telemetry data while flying in the B-1B bomb bay significantly reduces risk ahead of the first launch," said Mike Fleming, LRASM air launch program manager at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control. "Initial assessments indicate the missile performed as expected."

The LRASM program is in development with the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) and the Office of Naval Research. After a competition in 2009, Lockheed Martin's LRASM was selected to demonstrate air- and surface-launched capability to defeat emerging sea-based threats at significant standoff ranges.

LRASM is an autonomous, precision-guided anti-ship standoff missile leveraging the successful Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile Extended Range (JASSM-ER) heritage, and is designed to meet the needs of U.S. Navy and Air Force warfighters in a robust anti-access/area-denial threat environment.

Armed with a proven 1,000-lb. 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.

Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control is a 2012 recipient of the U.S. Department of Commerce's Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award for performance excellence. The Malcolm Baldrige Award represents the highest honor that can be awarded to American companies for achievement in leadership, strategic planning, customer relations, measurement, analysis, workforce excellence, operations and business results.

Headquartered in Bethesda, Md., Lockheed Martin is a global security and aerospace company that employs about 118,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration, and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products, and services. The Corporation's net sales for 2012 were $47.2 billion.

Distribution Statement "A" (Approved for Public Release, Distribution Unlimited)

http://www.lockheedmartin.com/us/news/press-releases/2013/july/mfc-071113-lm-completes-captive-carry.html

jurrien visser (JuVi op Twitter)

Surface Combat Fleets: Obsolete?

By James R. Holmes

March 13, 2013

America is developing its own carrier killer. Defense Industry Daily reports that the U.S. Navy has budgeted some $198 million through 2017 to fund a sorely needed replacement for its swiftly aging RGM-84 Harpoon antiship cruise missile. The workhorse Harpoon is rapidly being overtaken by rivals such as the Indian Navy's supersonic BrahMos, which outranges the American bird by a wide margin. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency started developing a subsonic and a supersonic variant of a long-range antiship cruise missile, or LRASM, in 2009. It subsequently dropped the supersonic LRASM-B while pressing ahead with the subsonic LRASM-A. Testing will commence this year. Assuming all goes well, the navy may soon accept ownership of — and begin funding — the missile's development, manufacture, and deployment in fleet warships.

The Defense Industry Daily report speculates that budgetary woes may sink the LRASM program. That would represent a grave mistake, not to mention an awful signal to send to competitors in today's increasingly stressful maritime environment. Not only do U.S. surface combatants increasingly find themselves outranged, but the short tactical radius of contemporary naval aircraft has abbreviated the striking reach of carrier task forces. American forces must venture closer to enemy fleets or shores at the same time defenders are extending the lethal reach of their ASCMs and, in China's case, adding a panoply of other anti-access weaponry to the inventory. The LRASM's approximate 500-mile range is crucial to restore the balance of hitting power.

What does the more distant future of surface warfare hold? Suppose antiship missiles come to boast transoceanic ranges — hardly a whimsical prospect if the DF-21D pans out. Sooner or later most of the world's oceans may fall under the shadow of land-based precision weaponry, much as the Allies extended air cover across the Atlantic Ocean during World War II. Bombers flying from shore airfields became potent antiship implements, helping negate the U-boat menace. If missiles fired from land can strike at surface vessels from vast distances, why send out cruisers or destroyers — basically mobile launch platforms — to accomplish the same thing at mortal risk to themselves?

Such developments could see the offense-defense balance shift radically toward the defense, obviating the advantages cruise missiles and high-tech combat systems like Aegis bestowed on seaborne forces starting in the 1980s. If so, extended-range fire support coupled with submarine warfare could convert the seas into no-man's lands in wartime. I doubt new technology will empower defenders to command the sea from the shore, but it might well empower them to deny command across broad expanses — making for a Mad Max future on the high seas, a war of all against all. Is the end of surface combat fleets coming into sight? It's not an immediate prospect. Strategic one-upsmanship typifies international competition and conflict. Innovation begets counter-innovation.

Nevertheless, the maritime strategic landscape is starting to look grim for "skimmers" such as myself who ply the water's surface. Surface navies doubtless have a future in peacetime. Whether they can contribute in wartime, even if armed with carrier killers, is worth pondering.

http://thediplomat.com/the-naval-diplomat/2013/03/13/surface-combat-fleets-obsolete/

jurrien visser (JuVi op Twitter)

B-1B To Test New Offensive Anti-Surface Missile

March 6, 2013

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has added a third flight test of an air-launched Long Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM) to be conducted from a B-1B in 2013. There are already two air-launched flight tests scheduled for this year as part of the Phase 2 LRASM contract awarded in 2010. The agency awarded Lockheed Martin has received a $71 million Long Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM) modification contract to conduct air- and surface-launched flight tests and other risk reduction activities.

"This contract modification furthers the development of LRASM as we are committed to provide the Navy with an offensive anti-surface weapon (OASuW) alternative that is compatible with multiple platforms," said Mike Fleming, LRASM air-launched program manager at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control. What makes the B-1 unique versus the other aircraft is its capability to carry 24 JASSM class weapons. With such capability, two bombers can take out an entire enemy fleet destroying 48 different targets on a single strike, or used against less targets, overwhelming the target defense by saturating attacks. The long range and stealth capabilities of the missiles will gain the advantage of surprise attack from stand-off range. The B-2 Spirit can carry 16 JAASMs and the B-52 Stratofortress can carry 12.

The contract also includes two surface-launched LRASM flight tests scheduled for 2014. Risk reduction efforts, such as electromagnetic compatibility testing of the missile and follow-on captive carry sensor suite missions, are also included under the contract.

LRASM is an autonomous, precision-guided anti-ship standoff missile based on the successful JASSM-ER, and is designed to meet the needs of U.S. Navy and Air Force warfighters. LRASM is in development with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the Office of Naval Research.

In addition to the air-launched capability LRASM is also considered for shipboard integration with the Weapon Control System and MK 41 Vertical Launching System. As part of this investment, Lockheed Martin successfully demonstrated the mission planning of a LRASM-based OASuW capability using a simulated surface ship Weapon Control System.

"Our company investment in shipboard integration, combined with the new surface-launch flight tests, will provide an integrated OASuW solution compatible with surface ships," said Scott Callaway, LRASM surface-launched program manager at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control.

Armed with a proven penetrator and blast-fragmentation warhead, LRASM cruises autonomously, day or night, in all weather conditions. The missile employs a multi-modal sensor, weapon data link, and an enhanced digital anti-jam Global Positioning System to detect and destroy specific targets within a group of ships.

http://defense-update.com/20130306_b-1b-to-test-new-offensive-anti-surface-missile.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+DefenseUpdate+%28Defense+Update%29

StrataNL

LRASM is lange afstand en supersonisch, de andere zijn high subsonische seaskimmers. Ligt eraan wat je wil natuurlijk.
-Strata-
Je Maintiendrai! Blog: Krijgsmacht Next-Generation

dudge

Citaat van: Strata op 13/10/2012 | 00:16 uur
Interessant, ik dacht dat de LRASM dit voorjaar was gecancelled. had hem al geschrapt van mijn lijstje van mogelijke harpoon opvolgers.
Het is wel een ander soort raket dan NSM en RBS14 mkIV en harpoon...
Is het dan nog wel een opvolger of is het een aanvulling? 

StrataNL

Interessant, ik dacht dat de LRASM dit voorjaar was gecancelled. had hem al geschrapt van mijn lijstje van mogelijke harpoon opvolgers.
Het is wel een ander soort raket dan NSM en RBS14 mkIV en harpoon...
-Strata-
Je Maintiendrai! Blog: Krijgsmacht Next-Generation

jurrien visser (JuVi op Twitter)

Missile Mystery

Posted byBill Sweetman1:25 PM on Sep 18, 2012

Lockheed Martin is making an aggressive pitch for its Long Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM), a maritime-strike version of the Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile - Extended Range (JASSM-ER) that it builds for the USAF. Although LRASM is still a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency demonstration project, Lockheed Martin says that it could be operational as an air-launched weapon as soon as 2016, with a vertically launched shipboard version following two years later.

Lockheed Martin briefed the project at the Air Force Association show near Washington on Tuesday, because the USAF is already involved in the project -- a B-1B will be the test platform and the concept is important in terms of the joint USAF-Navy Air-Sea Battle concept.

The Lockheed Martin proposal constitutes a direct threat to the Navy's current plan to field an anti-ship version of the Tomahawk Block IV cruise missile, as well as providing a possible alternative to new versions of the Boeing AGM-84 Harpoon and Raytheon AGM-154 Joint Standoff Weapon. As with those weapons, the goal is to provide the Navy with a more accurate, discriminating anti-ship missile which can tackle heavily defended targets in a cluttered environment. The watchword is "net-enabled weapons": missiles that can get inflight targeting updates from other platforms but can still work if the net or even GPS is taken down by an adversary.

LRASM looks the same as JASSM but adds a datalink, an imaging terminal seeker that can classify or identify the target and pick an aimpoint, and active and passive countermeasures. But it also has a radio-frequency guidance system that allows it to detect a ship target from outside the range of the target's own missile defenses, after which the missile drops to sea-skimming height for the attack run.

Developed by BAE Systems (the former Sanders unit in Nashua, NH) the seeker is key to LRASM and in many ways DARPA built the program around it. It has RF apertures in the nose and wingtips, and according to Lockheed Martin it is passive -- non-transmitting. Which raises an interesting question: where does the RF energy come from? No ship target collaborates in its own demise by transmitting continuously -- emission control or EMCON is a basic part of naval operations. It's an interesting question, but no answers except "ask DARPA" are forthcoming.

Three "tactically representative" missiles are to be launched in 2013, and a test vehicle is to be launched vertically (using an Asroc canister and booster) in 2014. The weapon was originally known as LRASM-A -- development of a high-supersonic anti-ship weapon, LRASM-B, was terminated early this year.

http://www.aviationweek.com/Blogs.aspx?plckBlogId=Blog:27ec4a53-dcc8-42d0-bd3a-01329aef79a7&plckPostId=Blog%3A27ec4a53-dcc8-42d0-bd3a-01329aef79a7Post%3A190c5872-5146-4e7f-a3c9-617874d413b3

jurrien visser (JuVi op Twitter)

Citaat van: Wikipedia Vandaag om 01:53
Long Range Anti-Ship Missile
LRASM is designed to be compatible with the Mk 41 Vertical Launch System used on many US Navy ships[5] and to be fired from aircraft.

Is dit ook voor de KM de opvolger van de Harpoon na 2020 (voor de oplvolger van het huidige MFF)?

Aangezien de JASSM op het Klu verlanglijstje staat voor de F16 opvolger zou hier maar zo een gevalletje van synerchie tussen Klu en KM kunnen ontstaan.

Of is dit te ambitieus?


jurrien visser (JuVi op Twitter)

Long Range Anti-Ship Missile


From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Long Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM) is an anti-ship missile being developed by DARPA for the US Navy.[1]

Unlike current anti-ship missiles the LRASM will be capable of conducting autonomous targeting, relying on on-board targeting systems to independently acquire the target without the presence of prior, precision intelligence, or supporting services like Global Positioning Satellite navigation and data-links. These capabilities will enable positive target identification, precision engagement of moving ships and establishing of initial target cueing in extremely hostile environment. The missile will be designed with advanced counter-countermeasures,to effectively evade hostile active defense systems.[2]

The program was initiated in 2009 and started along two different tracks. LRASM-A is a subsonic cruise missile based on Lockheed Martin's 500nm-range AGM-158 JASSM-ER - Lockheed Martin has been awarded initial development contracts.[3] LRASM-B was planned to be a high-altitude supersonic missile along the lines of the Indo-Russian Brahmos, but it was cancelled in January 2012. Captive carry flight tests of LRASM sensors began in May 2012; a missile prototype is planned to fly in "early 2013" and the first canister launch is intended for "end 2014".[4]

LRASM is designed to be compatible with the Mk 41 Vertical Launch System used on many US Navy ships[5] and to be fired from aircraft.

jurrien visser (JuVi op Twitter)

Lockheed Martin Successfully Completes First LRASM Captive Carriage Test

ORLANDO, Fla., July 16, 2012 – Lockheed Martin's [NYSE: LMT] Long Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM) sensor suite recently completed its first flight during a captive carry flight test off the coast of northwest Florida using a modified Sabreliner business jet.

The objectives of the flight test included detecting, classifying and recognizing targets. Conducted at various airspeeds and altitudes, the flight tests exceeded all objectives and demonstrated successful sensor operation, as well as integration of the sensor suite with the missile electronics. Littoral imagery was captured during the tests, and target data processing algorithms ran real-time in the missile electronics, and demonstrated outstanding performance.

"This is a tremendous step toward integrating the LRASM subsystems and getting the missile into additional flight testing," said Mike Fleming, LRASM program manager in Lockheed Martin's Missiles and Fire Control business. "Testing and validation of subsystems is on schedule and will lead to All-Up-Round flight tests in early 2013. Our experience with related missile technology development efforts, such as the Joint Air-to-Surface Missile-Extended Range program, is directly benefiting our efforts on LRASM."     

The sensor suite consists of a radio-frequency sensor to detect ships in the area, a weapon data link for communication with battlefield managers and an electro-optical seeker for positive target identification and precise targeting during the terminal phase of flight. The missile also employs an enhanced digital anti-jam Global Positioning System to detect and destroy specific targets within a group of numerous ships at sea.

LRASM is designed to meet the needs of U.S. Navy and Air Force warfighters. LRASM incorporates sensors and systems to achieve a stealthy and survivable subsonic cruise missile with reduced dependence on intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance platforms, network links and GPS navigation in electronic warfare environments. 

This stealthy missile is in development with DARPA and the Office of Naval Research. Lockheed Martin is planning to offer both surface-launched and air-launched variants to attack sea-based targets at significant standoff ranges.

Headquartered in Bethesda, Md., Lockheed Martin is a global security and aerospace company that employs about 123,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services. The Corporation's net sales for 2011 were $46.5 billion.

http://www.lockheedmartin.com/us/news/press-releases/2012/july/mfc-071612-lm-successfullycompletes.html