The U.S. Air Force has decided to work with Raytheon’s design for the Long-Range Standoff Weapon (LRSO) programme.
“LRSO will be a critical contributor to the air-launched portion of America’s nuclear triad,” said Wes Kremer, president of Raytheon Missiles and Defense.
“Providing a modernised capability to the U.S. Air Force will strengthen our nation’s deterrence posture.”
In 2017, the U.S. Air Force awarded Raytheon and Lockheed Martin contracts for the Technology Maturation and Risk Reduction phase of the program. The Raytheon Missiles & Defense LRSO team say they recently passed the preliminary design review and are on track to complete the Technology Maturation and Risk Reduction phase of the process by January 2022.
Contract negotiations for the engineering and manufacturing development phase, with a strong focus on schedule realism, affordability, and cost-capability trades, will start in Fiscal Year 2021. The contract award is anticipated in FY22.
The LRSO is designed to be a nuclear-armed cruise missile to replace the AGM-86.
Lot going on in the air launched missile arena:
https://www.airforcemag.com/afgsc-eyes-hypersonic-weapons-for-b-1-conventional-lrso/
Looks as though the USAF is going to keep at least part of the remaining B1 fleet as a missile truck. Good idea IMO…
Cheers!