The U.S. Army has spent roughly five years assessing what a helicopter-fired, long-range precision munition would appear like. But during that point other options have emerged that might achieve greater commonality with weapons that might be launched from a greater variety of platforms, in keeping with the service’s lead for force development.
“Frankly, I even have numerous questions on this space, because the G-8, that I’ve asked for,” Lt. Gen. Karl Gingrich told Defense News in a recent interview.
The Army has procured an interim system for its Long-Range Precision Munition program, or LRPM — Israeli company Rafael Advanced Defense Systems’ Spike non-line-of-site missile. The service is fielding it on a portion of its AH-64 Apache attack helicopters.
The service was expected to decide on an industry team to supply a brand new LRPM in fiscal 2023 following a shoot-off that included the Spike weapon in the autumn of 2022, but that call was delayed.
The Spike “has inherent qualities to it: range, great; sensor, possibly not what we’d like in the long run,” Gingrich said.
“Is that the answer to proliferate across all Apaches? I’m not sold yet. I want to do some more work,” he added. “LRPM actually is looking an awful lot like a Launched Effects-Medium Range.” Launched effects are expected to deliver capabilities comparable to targeting, reconnaissance, surveillance, network extension and lethality in a fancy environment.
Gingrich said he’s considering commonality as an element. There’s a possibility, he noted, that LPRM “just gets pushed into Launched Effects-Medium Range after which now, potentially, we could have a typical capability at that range in that form factor that might be air-delivered or ground-delivered from a platform.”
One attribute into consideration, in keeping with Gingrich, is the missile’s speed. A loitering munition is slower. “Do you continue to need that direct attack that is available in at the next rate of speed?” he asked. “I don’t know.”
Indeed, the Army still needs something that may achieve prolonged ranges when considering current battlefields, Gingrich said. “We still have Hellfire [missiles]. We still have [the Joint Air-to-Ground Missile] JAGM, but we’ve never been able to actually get the range that we’d like out of JAGM, which is an awesome system,” he noted.
The Army is prioritizing the event and acquisition of launched effects which might be able to flying at different ranges and deploying from quite a lot of air and ground vehicles, particularly with the cancellation of the service’ crewed Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft, which made available funding to pursue those programs.
Gingrich is preparing for a session with the Army Requirements Oversight Council to solidify requirements for launched effects. That meeting is scheduled for June 28.
A 12 months ago, the strategy for launched effects was murky. The Army was considering several size classes for launched effects and was prototyping the primary version of a small capability. This version was meant to assist the service resolve find out how to procure and employ these systems on the battlefield.
There’s an awesome deal of interest from industry. The service held an event in February for launched effects with a big turnout from businesses. The service also plans to experiment with a heavy concentrate on launched effects at its aviation experimentation event, generally known as Edge, this fall.
The medium-range launched effects prototype is the results of contributions from five firms that teamed up. The Army plans to wrap up evaluation of the prototypes in September and can then weigh various options, from rapid fielding to low-rate initial production to more prototyping.
The service also released a request for proposals in March for a short-range launched effect. A prototyping process for that effort will begin in early FY25.
A protracted-range version is taken into account more of a corps-level asset, and prototyping will begin to develop the aptitude on the tail end of FY25.
Jen Judson is an award-winning journalist covering land warfare for Defense News. She has also worked for Politico and Inside Defense. She holds a Master of Science degree in journalism from Boston University and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Kenyon College.