A Long-Range Anti-Ship Missile, or LRASM, scored a direct hit on a mobile ship target after launching from a B-1B bomber earlier this week, announced Lockheed Martin Thursday. It was the second of two air-launched successes for the missile so far. The LRASM is a maritime warfare variant of the stealthy Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM), with additional search and homing sensors. The target was representative of a moving ship. The B-1B provided targeting updates to the missile in-flight through data links; the LRASM then switched to autonomous guidance, found and verified the target, and struck it at the planned impact point. The test was a joint undertaking of DARPA and the Office of Naval Research, under a contract awarded in 2009 to demonstrate an off-the-shelf development of a weapon to attack sea-based threats at long range. The LRASM can be air-launched or fired from a shipborne vertical launch system, and has an “enhanced digital anti-jam global positioning system” capability “to detect and destroy specific targets within groups of ships,” Lockheed Martin said in a release. The B-1B used in the test is attached to the Air Force’s 337th Test and Evaluation Squadron at Dyess AFB, Texas.
The "Air Force One" replacement will be two to three years late due to pandemic issues, testing, and the loss of a subcontractor on the interior, USAF officials reported at a House Armed Services Committee hearing. They were also warned that some HASC members will insist on a competition for…