The U.S. Navy's Long-Range Anti-Ship Missile Capabilities and Development
Summary
The AGM-158C Long-Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM) is a advanced anti-ship weapon system that has been integrated across multiple U.S. military platforms, including B-1 and B-2 bombers, F-15E/EX, F-18, F-35, and P-8 aircraft, as well as ship-based VLS cells and potentially HIMARS vehicles. Weighing 1,100 kilograms with a 450-kilogram warhead, the missile has a range of approximately 560 kilometers and costs over $1 million per unit, with an exterior appearance resembling a drone featuring swept-back wings and a single upright tailfin. Originally developed as a research project in 2009, LRASM was derived from the existing AGM-158 JASSM-ER cruise missile and was officially designated AGM-158C in 2015, following a 2014 decision to deploy it as a stopgap measure until a more advanced Tomahawk successor could be developed. The missile demonstrated autonomous target-seeking capabilities during its first field test in 2013, when it successfully navigated via GPS waypoints over several hundred kilometers before independently searching for and identifying moving destroyer-sized vessels without remote control guidance.
Key Takeaways
- 1. LRASM has been integrated into a wide variety of U.S. air, sea, and land-based platforms, significantly expanding its deployment flexibility
- 2. The missile traces its origins to the JASSM-ER program and was officially recognized as the AGM-158C designation in 2015
- 3. A key distinguishing feature of LRASM is its autonomous hunter-killer capability, allowing it to seek targets independently while countering enemy electronic measures
- 4. The missile represents a stopgap solution bridging current anti-ship capabilities until a more advanced successor to the Tomahawk cruise missile becomes available
- 5. At over $1 million per unit with a 560-kilometer range, LRASM offers a significant long-range precision strike capability against heavily defended maritime targets