The U.S. Air Force in fiscal 2023 is requesting almost $981 million for the Long Range Standoff Missile that Raytheon is developing for the service — nearly $382 million more than appropriated by Congress in fiscal 2022 and more than $615 million more than the fiscal 2021 budget.
Of the $980.8 million the Air Force seeks for the next-generation nuclear cruise missile, about $52 million looks to be for long-lead acquisition items. The missile will carry a W80-4 warhead, a refurbished W80-1 to be provided by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California.
Last July, the Air Force awarded Raytheon’s missiles and defense division in Tucson, Ariz. a $2 billion cost plus contract with performance incentives for the engineering and manufacturing development (EMD) phase of the Long Range Standoff Weapon (LRSO) program.
Before a LRSO procurement decision the Air Force secretary and Defense Department acquisition boss are to provide to Congress an updated cost estimate for LRSO, a certification that future years spending plans will include that cost estimate and a copy of the justification and approval documentation allowing the Air Force to move ahead with a sole-source contract to Raytheon and including the Air Force secretary’s assessment of how the service “will manage the cost of the program in the absence of competition,” according to the the fiscal 2022 National Defense Authorization Act.
The fiscal 2022 defense authorization also requires the Air Force secretary “to ensure that the B-21 bomber is capable of employing [LRSO].” Northrop Grumman is building the B-21 Raider in Palmdale, Calif.
LRSO “retains penetrating and survivable capabilities in advanced Integrated Air Defense Systems and GPS-denied environments from significant stand-off ranges, ensuring we maintain a credible deterrent,” the Pentagon said. “Combined with nuclear capable bombers, LRSO provides the nuclear triad with a clear, visible, and tailorable deterrent. LRSO provides the president and U.S. forces the ability to project power and hold at risk any target at any location on the globe. LRSO also provides a hedge against future technological and geopolitical uncertainties.”
The fiscal 2022 NDAA required Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall to brief the congressional defense committees on the execution of the LRSO EMD contract by the end of last month and to provide insight on “how the timely development of [LRSO] may serve as a hedge to delays in other nuclear modernization efforts” and “the effects of potential delays in the W80–4 warhead program on the ability of [LRSO] to achieve the initial operational capability [IOC] schedule.”
The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) estimates that it will complete the first production unit of the W80-4 — the proof-of-concept article that will be stripped down and inspected to ensure the design is war-ready and suitable for mass production — in fiscal year 2025. The semiautonomous Department of Energy nuclear weapons agency expects to finish the last W80-4 in fiscal year 2031, according to the agency’s fiscal year 2022 Stockpile Stewardship and Management Plan.
LRSO is to replace the Boeing-built AGM-86 Air Launched Cruise Missile (ALCM), first fielded in 1982 and “well past its original 10-year service life design,” DoD has said.
The Air Force has said that the details of LRSO, which is to reach IOC by 2030, are classified.
A version of this story first appeared in Exchange Monitor‘s affiliate publication Defense Daily.
