Lockheed Martin announced Friday that it won two contracts worth $218 million to continue work on long-range anti-ship missiles for the Navy. The missiles could boost the Navy’s range and deadliness in combat.
“Both of our LRASM solutions will deliver extraordinary range, willful penetration of ship self defense systems and precise lethality in denied combat environments,” said Rick Edwards, Lockheed Martin’s vice president of Tactical Missiles and Combat Maneuver Systems, in a news release
The funding is for the second phase of the project which will provide demonstrations of the capability of the missiles.
“These LRASM contracts will demonstrate two mature tactical missiles for new generation anti-surface warfare weapons capability; one low and stealthy, the other high and fast with moderate stealth,” said Glenn Kuller, director of Lockheed Martin’s Tactical Missiles Advanced Programs.
It’s unclear what the practical uses of the missiles will be in the nation’s current war fronts.
“How these are employed is fairly sensitive,” said Craig Vanbebber, a spokesman for Lockheed Martin. “In a very generic sense, it’s for multiple options.”
The Department of Defense did not return calls explaining more specifically the uses of the missiles.
