Air Force Eyes New Stand-Off Missile with 1,000-Nautical Mile Range

The Air Force wants a new “Air Force Long Range Weapon” with variants that can strike air-to-air and air-to-surface targets at a minimum range of 1,150 miles.

That’s according to an Air Force Lifecyle Management Center notice posted June 24 announcing a classified two-day industry event scheduled for Aug. 25-26 at the Eglin Air Force Base, Fla. guided weapons evaluation facility.

If selected, the USAF first wants vendors who can produce a fully assembled and tested round that’s ready to use, managing both the subsystem design and manufacturing that meets Weapons Open System Architecture and Government Reference Architecture requirements.

Secondarily, the service wants the vendor to act as the “master integrator,” according to the notice, integrating various subsystems into the actual missile shell.

The notice does not specify what type of aircraft they expect to carry the AFLRW.

It does say that the missiles should be able to strike targets in Defense Planning Scenario 2.1 and 7.1 environments in a responsive manner.

The planning scenarios are basically real-world challenges that a force or weapon must be designed against, according to a 2019 RAND study on the DOD’s planning process. Specific scenarios referenced in the notice are not detailed.

The dual variants of both air-to-air and air-to-surface suggest a wide range of applications.

Air Force fighters, the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor and the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II can fire the AIM-120D Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile, which can reach distances of more than 100 miles.

The still-under-development Air-to-Ground Missile-181A Long-Range Standoff Weapon is being built for bombers, such as the B-52 Stratofortress and the forthcoming B-21 Raider, to carry and strike air-to-surface targets. It is expected to have a striking distance of up to 1,500 miles.

“The AFLRW is aimed at addressing the next generation of Air-Launched Standoff Weapon variants in line with Department of War priorities,” according to the notice.

An AFLCMC spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment on June 25.

An Exquisite Missile?

Unlike many recent public Air Force munitions efforts, this notice does not stress affordability. The service has put a lot of push behind its Family of Affordable Mass Missiles program, which is a lower cost cruise missile effort that has multiple variants.

Undersecretary of Defense Emil Michael noted on June 12 during an interview with the Hudson Institute that the DOD had signed multiple deals to produce low-cost cruise missiles that come in at about $500,000 per missile as compared to the standard “exquisite” cruise missile, which runs about $2 million.

And those lower cost munitions make up a big part of the service’s munitions spending in the coming years.

Secretary of the Air Force Troy Meink testified in a Senate hearing on June 9 that about 60 percent of the 28,000 munitions that the service is seeking to buy over the next five years for are under the FAMM program.