Looks like LRASM-B is basically gonna be ASALM. From this week's AvWeek:
"The high-speed, high-altitude LRASM-B uses a Pratt & Whitney integrated rocket/ramjet propulsion system originally developed in the 1970s for the supersonic Advanced Strategic Air-Launched Missile (Asalm)."
This is just pathetic. Our expertise (such as it is) is so behind the times that they have to reach 40 years into the past to find something that actually works? And I suspect the "L" in "LRASM" will leave a lot to be desired as well. ASALM was to have a 300 mile range with the relatively light weight W80. Go to a conventional warhead and range will drop like a rock . I hope ASALM is merely a reference and that this thing will be scaled up and improved or they may as well not even bother. What next, they gonna blow the dust off Talos?
The money quote:
"Jassm-ER was selected as the basis for the “super-stealthy” LRASM-A because it is “a mature missile with mature propulsion,” says Kuller. The Asalm-based propulsion system for the LRASM-B “is as mature as we could get for a high-speed missile,” he says." A 40 year old design, "yep, that's the best we can do". This is what happens when you let your industrial base go to hell.
"Plans call for two air launches of the LRASM-A from a U.S. Air Force bomber and four surface launches of the LRASM-B from the Mk29 vertical-launch canister using the Aerojet Mk72 booster from the Standard SM-3 surface-to-air missile. For the demonstration flights, LRASM-B will use integrated rocket/ramjets originally built for the Asalm-derived Supersonic Low-Altitude Target (SLAT) and stored at China Lake, Calif., since the program was cancelled in 1991, Kuller says."
I guess they're gonna be screwed after they've used those up and they have to try to make more. (That's when it'll get cancelled due to cost escalations and "technical challenges".)
