Ramona Adams
A Lockheed Martin-built missile has been released from an F/A-18E/F Super Hornet aircraft of the U.S. Navy during a flight test at the service branch’s air station in Patuxent River, Maryland.
The jettison flight test aimed to validate the aerodynamic separation models of Lockheed’s Long Range Anti-Ship Missile in a push to obtain flight clearance for captive carry integration tests later this year, the company said Monday.
Mike Fleming, director of the LRASM program at Lockheed, said the demonstration builds on efforts to achieve early operational capability for LRASM in 2019.
LRASM is designed to detect and engage specific targets within groups of ships through technologies that lessen dependence on network links, GPS navigation and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance platforms.
Lockheed developed the system to aid Navy and Air Force missions in anti-access/area-denial threat environments.
An air-launched variant of LRASM is scheduled for integration on the Air Force’s B-1B Lancer bomber aircraft in 2018 and on the Navy’s Super Hornets in 2019.
