A Marine helicopter crew sank a moving training vessel near Okinawa, Japan, using a newly acquired “fire and forget” missile for the primary time within the Indo-Pacific region.
The 2 Marine crew of an AH-1Z Viper attached to the Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron (VMM) 262 Reinforced with the thirty first Marine Expeditionary Unit fired the missile Wednesday in training mission within the Philippine Sea wherein one other vessel towed the goal.
Marines used the newly acquired AGM-179 joint air-to-ground missile for the primary time in such a strike mission, in accordance with a press release.
“The missile will be used to defend key maritime terrain against a big selection of targets from armored vehicles to maritime patrol craft during conflict,” wrote Capt. Pawel Puczko in the discharge.
As a part of the training, a UH-1Y Huey helicopter accompanied the Viper on a forward arming and refueling, or FARP, which is how the Marines plan to resupply aircraft across the Pacific in any future conflict.
The missile replaces each the radar-guided Longbow missile and the laser-guided AGM-114, in accordance with manufacturer Lockheed Martin. The missile will be fired from fighter jets, ground vehicles or helicopters.
It combines features of each the Longbow and AGM-114, in accordance with Lockheed Martin.
The missile weighs about 114 kilos, is sort of six feet long and seven inches in diameter, in accordance with the company’s website. It uses a solid rocket motor and may carry a multipurpose warhead with a shaped-charge package inside a fragmenting case, in accordance with the U.S. Navy Air Systems Command.
The weapon will be used on combat vehicles, air defense equipment, launchers, buildings, bunkers, patrol craft and command and control nodes, in accordance with the command.
In 2022 the corporate announced that it had doubled the range of the AGM-179, showcasing a ten mile strike in testing on the Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake, California, Marine Corps Times sister publication Defense News reported.
The Marine Corps didn’t provide distances or goal speed of the recent goal strike near Okinawa, Japan.
The corporate also added a tri-mode seeker that pairs a low-cost imaging sensor with the seeker’s semi-active laser and millimeter wave sensors.
Those capabilities allow the shooter to fireplace the weapon and fly away, increasing survivability and accuracy.
The sensors and range give users greater stand-off distances from enemy air defenses, Lockheed Martin program director for air-to-ground missile systems told Defense News on the time.
The Army also purchased the brand new missile to arm its Viper equivalent, the AH-64E Apache helicopter, Defense News reported.
A Viper crew with Marine Light Attack Helicopter Squadron 367 used the missile during Exercise Steel Knight off the California coast on Dec. 5, 2023, in accordance with a I Marine Expeditionary Force release.
In that exercise, targets were marked with a laser designator from a U.S. Navy MH-60R Seahawk helicopter, used to guide the missile to the target, in accordance with the discharge.
Todd South has written about crime, courts, government and the military for multiple publications since 2004 and was named a 2014 Pulitzer finalist for a co-written project on witness intimidation. Todd is a Marine veteran of the Iraq War.