By MARK GUNZINGER
UPDATED: We Run Op-Ed; Pentagon Announces LRSO Contract
The Pentagon just awarded the third major contract in the modernization of the nuclear triad. First came the B-21 bomber. Then the Columbia-class submarine, to replace the Ohio class boomers. Two days ago they awarded Boeing and Northrop Grumman contracts to begin work on the new version of our Inter Continental Ballistic Missile fleet. there is one uncertainty in the nuclear modernization package: will America replace the Air-Launched Cruise Missile (ALCM) with a program known as Long Range Stand-Off. For the record, a number of senior Pentagon nominees have told Congress they support the program, but Defense Secretary Jim Mattis remains officially on the fence. Mark Gunzinger, respected strategist at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, offers this analysis of LRSO. Read on! The Editor.
UPDATE: Looks like we’re more powerful than we thought. Our op-ed ran and a few hours later the Pentagon issued contracts for development of the LRSO! Lockheed Martin and Raytheon were awarded $900 million cost-plus-fixed-fee contracts for LRSO’s technology maturation and risk reduction. Lockheed’s work will be done in Orlando, and Raytheon’s in Tucson.
The Defense Department acknowledges that America’s military is on the path toward becoming a hollow force. The signs: declining readiness, insufficient end strength, and aging weapon systems. It is also true that the Pentagon’s nuclear forces have absorbed more than their fair share of cuts since the end of the Cold War, including cuts that have eroded the ability of its bombers to support their strategic deterrence mission. The early termination of the B-2 stealth bomber program at 21 aircraft, about 16 percent of the original requirement, may be the most notorious of these decisions.
The Pentagon is now developing the B-21 Raider stealth aircraft to augment or replace some of its aging bombers. While this is progress, sustaining the air-breathing leg of the U.S. strategic triad is more than a matter of procuring a new bomber. Funding is also needed to replace the AGM-86B Air-Launched Cruise Missile (ALCM), which is now the U.S. military’s only air-launched, standoff attack nuclear weapon. Today, 35-year-old ALCMs are carried by 55-year-old B-52 bombers, both of which were never designed to penetrate advanced air defenses now fielded by Russia, China, and even Iran. The ALCM’s intended replacement is called the Long Range Stand-Off weapon (LRSO), which, according to the Air Force, will have the ability to “penetrate and survive advanced Integrated Air Defense Systems (IADS) and GPS-denied environments from significant standoff ranges.”
https://breakingdefense.com/2017/08/why-america-needs-a-nuclear-air-launched-cruise-missile/
