The National Interest, a U.S. diplomatic and security journal, published an article Monday titled “Chinese Communist Party Beware, U.S. Marine Corps’ Stealthy New Ship Killer.
In February, the Navy and Air Force signed a contract with Lockheed Martin to buy the company’s Long Range Anti-Ship Missile, also known as LRASM, according to the article.
The agreement, valued at $414 million for the fourth and fifth lots of missiles, is the largest Long Range Anti-Ship Missile contract in the history of the Lockheed missile program, a contract that includes 137 missiles, training and logistics support, and additional Long Range Anti-Ship Missile support equipment.
In a Lockheed Martin press release, David Helsel, director of long-range anti-ship missiles for its missiles and fire control division, explained that the Navy and Air Force (contract) awards “reflect the growing importance of long-range anti-ship missiles to our customers’ missions. Focused teamwork around a common vision, with our customers and specialized supply partners, remains the key to the program’s success.”
The article describes a bit about the Long Range Anti-Ship Missile
Highlights video: Long Range Anti-Ship Missile LRASM Source: Lockheed Martin website
The Long Range Anti-Ship Missile LRASM is a stealthy, lethal missile based in part on the earlier JASSM-ER missile and uses a “multi-mode sensor suite, weapon datalink and enhanced digital anti-jamming global positioning system” to distinguish specific targets within a fleet of ships. It can receive real-time target updates via datalink or use its onboard sensors to find targets. This advanced missile, Lockheed explained, is specifically designed to find and destroy specific ships, and this (finding and destroying) is sometimes autonomous. Because of the potential for GPS signal degradation in a highly adversarial electronic warfare environment, surveillance and reconnaissance will be difficult or unreliable.
Long-range anti-ship missiles are the latest in a string of newer, more lethal anti-ship weapons introduced by several services, particularly the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps, in part because of the perceived aggressive force posture of the Chinese Communist Party in the Pacific, as well as the Communist Navy’s growing number of ships and so-called carrier-killer weapons.
Why does the U.S. Marine Corps need long-range anti-ship missiles? The article answers with one word: China (CCP)!
According to the article, the Marines and Navy are not only spending money on increasingly sophisticated weaponry, but they are also reevaluating the way they conduct warfare. General David Berger, the top leader of the U.S. Marine Corps, has recently been pushing the Marine Corps toward amphibious operations, even arguing that well-trained Marines could help the Navy hunt down and sink Chinese Communist submarines.
The Marine Corps is also currently undergoing a dramatic doctrinal change, the largest force posture and restructuring in the past 25 years. The Marines are taking a break from the grueling land campaign in the Middle East and preparing to fight in the Pacific, somewhat reminiscent of the island-hopping campaign of World War II.
This time, however, instead of simply attacking and occupying enemy-controlled islands, the Marines will turn them into small bastions of U.S. firepower, holding enemy surface ships and submarines at bay and denying the enemy the use of those islands.
The long-range anti-ship missile could first complement and then replace the Harpoon anti-ship missile, which has long been the standard U.S. ship killer. And the long range of the long-range anti-ship missile – thought to be about 350 miles – would push Chinese Communist ships farther out to sea than the 150-mile range of the Harpoon: enemy beware!
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