page_title: AGM-158C LRASM
section_title: Development
hierarchical_section_title: AGM-158C LRASM / Development
caption_attribution_description: English: A Long Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM) launches from an Air Force B-1B Lancer during flight testing in August 2013. DARPA designed the free-flight transition test (FFTT) demonstration to verify the prototype's flight characteristics and assess subsystem and sensor performance. Designed to launch from both ships and planes such as the B-1 bomber, the test vehicle detected, engaged and hit an unmanned 260-foot Mobile Ship Target (MST) with an inert warhead (DARPA photo).
context_page_description: The AGM-158C LRASM is a stealthy anti-ship cruise missile developed for the United States Air Force and United States Navy by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. The LRASM was intended to pioneer more sophisticated autonomous targeting capabilities than the U.S. Navy's current Harpoon anti-ship missile, which has been in service since 1977.
  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.
context_section_description: The program was initiated in 2009 and started along two different tracks. LRASM-A is a subsonic cruise missile based on Lockheed Martin's 500 nm-range AGM-158 JASSM-ER; Lockheed Martin was awarded initial development contracts. 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 was planned to fly in "early 2013" and the first canister launch was intended for "end 2014".
  On October 1, 2012, Lockheed received a contract modification to perform risk reduction enhancements in advance of the upcoming flight test of the air-launched LRASM-A version. On March 5, 2013, Lockheed received a contract to begin conducting air and surface-launch tests of the LRASM. On June 3, 2013, Lockheed successfully conducted "push through" tests of a simulated LRASM on the Mk 41 Vertical Launch System (VLS).  Four tests verified the LRASM can break the canister's forward cover without damaging the missile. On July 11, 2013, Lockheed reported successful completion of captive-carry testing of the LRASM on a B-1B.
  On August 27, 2013, Lockheed conducted the first flight test of the LRASM, launched from a B-1B. Halfway to its target, the missile switched from following a planned route to autonomous guidance.  It autonomously detected its moving target, a 260 ft unmanned ship out of three in the target area, and hit it in the desired location with an inert warhead.  The purpose of the test was to stress the sensor suite, which detected all the targets and only engaged the one it was told to.  Two more flight tests were planned the year, involving different altitudes, ranges, and geometries in the target area.  Two launches from vertical launch systems were planned for summer 2014. The missile had a sensor designed by BAE Systems.  The sensor is designed to enable targeted attacks within a group of enemy ships protected by sophisticated air defense systems.  It autonomously located and targeted the moving surface ship.  The sensor uses advanced electronic technologies to detect targets within a complex signal environment, and then calculates precise target locations for the missile control unit.
  On September 17, 2013, Lockheed launched an LRASM Boosted Test Vehicle (BTV) from a Mk 41 VLS canister.  The company-funded test showed the LRASM, fitted with the Mk-114 rocket motor from the RUM-139 VL-ASROC, could ignite and penetrate the canister cover and perform a guided flight profile. In January 2014, Lockheed demonstrated that the LRASM could be launched from a Mk 41 VLS with only modified software to existing shipboard equipment.
  On November 12, 2013, an LRASM scored a direct hit on a moving naval target on its second flight test.  A B-1B bomber launched the missile, which navigated using planned waypoints that it received in-flight before transitioning to autonomous guidance.  It used onboard sensors to select the target, descend in altitude, and successfully impact. On 4 February 2015, the LRASM conducted its third successful flight test, conducted to evaluate low-altitude performance and obstacle avoidance.  Dropped from a B-1B, the missile navigated a series of planned waypoints, then detected, tracked, and avoided an object deliberately placed in the flight pattern in the final portion of the flight to demonstrate obstacle-avoidance algorithms.
  In August 2015, the Navy began load and fit checks of an LRASM mass simulator vehicle on an F/A-18 Super Hornet. Initial airworthiness flight testing of the LRASM simulator with the Super Hornet began on 3 November 2015, with the first flight occurring on 14 December, and load testing completed on 6 January 2016.
  In July 2016, Lockheed successfully conducted the third surface launch of the LRASM following two tests at the Navy’s Desert Ship, firing it from the Navy’s Self Defense Test Ship (formerly the USS Paul F. Foster).  Tied to a Tactical Tomahawk Weapon Control System (TTWCS) for guidance and boosted by the Mk-114 motor, it flew 
caption: LRASM launches from B-1B Lancer.
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