US Cruise Missiles Thread

The US Navy in December this year conducted the first tests of the newest type of Tomahawk Block V missiles, which were launched from the destroyer USS Chafee (DDG 90) in the Pacific waters.

https://en.topwar.ru/178185-dozvukovaja-skorost-javljaetsja-dostoinstvom-amerikanskie-jeksperty-ob-ispytanijah-novoj-rakety-tomagavk.html

Lockheed Martin received a major contract for the production of new aircraft anti-ship missiles AGM-158C
Today, 11: 32
12
The US Air Force and Navy are increasing the number of air-launched anti-ship missiles. According to Naval News, Lockheed Martin has received a new contract for the production of long-range anti-ship missiles AGM-158C (LRASM, Long Range Anti-Ship Missiles).

The corporation's new contract, worth $ 414 million, is the largest in the history of the LRASM program. As part of the signed agreement, Lockheed Martin will produce air-launched anti-ship missiles for F / A-18E / F carrier-based fighters and B-1B Lancer strategic bombers. The number of ordered missiles is not given.

The first batch of 158 AGM-23C smart missiles was ordered by the US Air Force in 2017.

The AGM-158C LRASM (Long Range Anti-Ship Missile) missile was developed and manufactured by Lockheed Martin for the US Department of Defense. Work on the creation of LRASM cruise missiles began in 2009, in 2014 the missile entered service with some US Navy ships, and aviation the variant was accepted into service only in 2019.

The LRASM missile carries a 450 kg warhead and can cover a distance of up to 930 km. The AGM-158C is equipped with a Williams International F107-WR-105 turbofan engine, which provides it with a maneuverable flight at subsonic speed (a supersonic version of the rocket was also developed, but this project was rejected by the US Department of Defense).

The new missiles have a special shape and coating that reduces radar signature, and are equipped with sensors that allow them to independently detect and identify targets in a given square, as well as "communicate" with other missiles, distributing targets among themselves.

https://en.topwar.ru/180313-lockheed-martin-poluchila-krupnyj-kontrakt-na-proizvodstvo-novyh-aviacionnyh-pkr-agm-158c.html

U.S. Army plans to start deploying medium-range missiles in 2023

bmpd
June 27th, 17:36

According to the American edition of "Defense News" in the material Jen Judson "US Army's first mid -range missile battery coming in FY23 with 3 to follow", according to documents on substantiation to 2022 fiscal year of the project the US defense budget, the US Army plans no later than September 2023 deploy the first mobile medium-range missile battery under the Mid-Range Capability (MRC) program, and then form three more batteries.

Defense News was previously the first to report that the US Army is planning to develop medium-range missiles under the Mid-Range Capability (MRC) program to fill the gap in military weapons between the initial declared range of the operational tactical missile Precision Strike Missile (PrSM) of approximately 499 km, and the range that is expected from promising ground-based hypersonic missiles.

Possession of a wide range of missiles of varying ranges in the Pacific theater offers many uses because there are many different locations from which to launch missiles, Brigadier General John Rafferty, in charge of the Army's precision weapons programs, told Defense News last year. at long ranges (Long-Range Precision Fires - LRPF). Mixing and combining missiles of different ranges from a wide variety of deployment areas "creates an incredible dilemma for the enemy," he said.

The US Army is implementing the medium-range missile project, raising an additional $ 88 million in congressional appropriations in fiscal 2021 and now requesting $ 286.46 million in fiscal 2022, which will be a critical year for the program's development. The US Army has already awarded Lockheed Martin a contract to design and manufacture a ground launch system for the US Navy's Standard SM-6 missiles and Tomahawk cruise missiles as an MRC solution.

According to the documents, the US Army plans to use FY2022 funding to deploy a prototype battery, which includes integration work and procurement of equipment and other materials to build the system, and testing at the component level and at the finished system level.

This work is overseen by the U.S. Army's Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office (RCCTO), but once the first battery is deployed, the program will be handed over to the U.S. Army's Program Executive Office. for Missiles & Space).

According to budget documents, next year the US Army will manufacture both MRC launchers and the first Battery Operations Center (BOC) for the first battery.

The battery will consist of four launchers and one BOC command post, the documentation says, but the number and type of missiles included in the battery are classified.

The Army plans to spend $ 46.5 million on launchers, $ 100.2 million on ground and support equipment, and $ 139.74 million on missiles in fiscal 2022.

System integration and validation is planned for the third quarter of fiscal 2022, after which the deployment and training of the first battery will begin, starting in the first quarter of fiscal 2023 and ending in the second quarter of fiscal 2024.

The US Army intends to achieve the deployment of the first battery system in the third quarter of fiscal year 2023 in accordance with the schedule indicated in the documents, and will conduct firing tests of SM-6 and Tomahawk missiles from it also in the third quarter of fiscal year 2023.

And while the US Army is rapidly developing the MRC program, it also begins funding in FY2022 to increase the PrSM missile's range to 1,000 km as part of a phased approach.

https://bmpd.livejournal.com/4339395.html

The US Army announced the combat readiness of the first experimental battery of the MRC Typhon missile system (ground base Tomahawk)



https://bmpd.livejournal.com/4721045.html

They will likely deploy them near China and North Korea by putting them in Japan and South Korea and of course any other country in the region they happen to regime change...

The old design seems far more practical, but I guess there is some money to be made here

Russia does have the equivalent, only limited in range. Iskander-K.
The range was a part of INF only, so can be increased any moment. With the existing missile size, there are speculations that they can easily reach 1000+km.
The whole Murican system looks twice as big as Iskander if you ask me. Superb engineering it is.

Well lets face it... a solid rocket booster to get the missile airborne and a Kh-101 and Kh-102 from the Iskander launcher means 4,500km and 5,000km range cruise missiles ready to go...