Lockheed awarded $33.4M for cost reduction work on LRASM

Feb. 22 (UPI) -- Lockheed Martin was awarded a $33.4 million contract as part of a cost reduction initiative in support of the Long Range Anti-Ship Missile for the U.S. Navy.

The contract includes the redesign, integration and test of radio frequency sensors, the Department of Defense announced Thursday.

The LRASM, based somewhat on the Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile Extended Range, or JASSM-ER, is a long-range precision guided missile designed to autonomously detect and engage enemy warships based on their image recognition, infrared, radar and other sensor profiles.

About 40 percent of the work will be performed in Wayne, N.J., and 40 percent in Nashua, N.H., with the remaining 20 percent performed in Orlando. Fla. Work is expected to be completed in February 2021.

The Navy has obligated about $16.7 million to Lockheed from fiscal 2019 Navy research, development, test and evaluations funds, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year.

The LRASM is expected to be integrated with the U.S. Navy's F/A-18E/F Super Hornet this year.

The Air Force in November awarded Lockheed a $172 million contract for production of 50 LRASMs, with an estimated completion date of December 2021. In December, the Air Force issued another contract to Lockheed for three LRASMs at a cost of $10.3 million, with completion of that work expected to be finished in February 2020.

Lockheed announced in December it had delivered the first LRASMs to the Air Force for use on the B-1B Lancer ahead of schedule, roughly a year-and-a-half after it successfully fired one from a B-1B for the first time in August 2017.