LRLAP Will Boost Fire-Support Range

By PATRICIA KIME
Sea Power Correspondent

As problems continue to plague the Extended-Range Guided Munition (ERGM) program, work is moving forward on the long-range land-attack projectile (LRLAP) to provide the Navy and Marine Corps with extended range and volume of fire support.

LRLAP is a rocket-assisted, precision-guided munition designed to give the Navy’s next-generation destroyer, DD(X), a responsive fire-support capability of up to 100 nautical miles. The ERGM will be used in the Navy’s current 5-inch, Mk45, Mod 4 gun aboard Arleigh Burke-class ships and is intended to deliver fire support up to 63 nautical miles from shore.

Since the Navy retired its last four battleships in the early 1990s, it has been unable to provide relatively inexpensive, high-volume fire support for ship-to-land maneuvers past 13 nautical miles. Meanwhile, the Marine Corps has moved its doctrine away from beach assaults requiring the establishment of land-based artillery support and supply depots. It has become an expeditionary maneuver force focused on direct ship-to-objective tactics, increasing its requirement for sustained, long-range supporting fire. The Navy’s current 5-inch guns, and more advanced systems such as Tomahawk cruise missiles, however, cannot provide a sufficient volume of fire at reasonable cost.

Developed by Raytheon, the ERGM, EX-171, uses Global Positioning System-Inertial Navigation System (GPS-INS) technology to deliver its payload. The rounds are likely to cost $50,000 each.

But the now eight-year-old program has encountered numerous development problems that have delayed production. Originally scheduled to be fielded in 2001, Raytheon now is expecting to produce the first ERGMs by 2006. During the program’s most recent setback in April, the tailfin of an ERGM failed to deploy and its rocket motor broke during a field test.

ERGM also falls short of some fire support objectives. “[ERGM] will reduce the range gap, but will lack the magazine volume and automation required for sustained fire support,” Navy officials said in a prepared statement June 8.

LRLAP is being developed by Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control, of Orlando, Fla. Like ERGM, it uses GPS-INS guidance systems. But it will have seeker capability and be able to deliver a variety of payloads at targets between 80 and 100 nautical miles away.

LRLAP is to be used in a fully automated magazine with the advanced gun system and there will be no manual handling of the round.

Lockheed Martin was awarded the initial $41.3 million development contract in April 2003 by United Defense of Arlington, Va., builders of the advanced gun system that will arm the DD(X). Lockheed Martin won the contract following tight competition with Raytheon, which had hoped to use its ERGM design knowledge to produce the LRLAP.

Guided flight testing is expected to begin in September. A preliminary design review is scheduled for December.

“Our timeline is tied to the advanced gun system and DD(X). You won’t see this deployed until DD(X) is out there, but we’ll have a functioning gun mount and magazine operating long before the first ship is built,” said Terry Bowman, Lockheed Martin business development spokesman.

The LRLAP is to be at least 84 inches long, will have a rocket motor and “must be as precise as any missile in the fleet,” Bowman said. It will use a variety of guidance systems with seeker variants and be capable of carrying various payloads. Bowman estimated it will carry warheads four times the size as the ERGM.

Each projectile is expected to cost roughly $35,000.

“It’s expected to be precise and inexpensive, have a rocket motor and do everything a missile does, and we’re projecting a cost of $35,000 per round. It will definitely be a challenge,” Bowman said.

Cost to develop the round and the advanced gun system is $850 million, Navy officials said. LRLAP and the advanced gun system will be deployed with the first DD(X) ship, expected in fiscal 2013.

Perhaps because of the problems encountered during the ERGM program, the Navy is issuing few official statements about LRLAP, and has refused to allow Lockheed Martin to produce a fact sheet about it.

Meantime, Raytheon is moving ahead with component testing of the ERGM and expects to have land-based guided flight tests of the munition in late summer.

“We are continuing to work with the Navy to ensure that the program is successful, doing what it is designed to do, supporting the warfighters,” said Raytheon spokeswoman Sara Hammond.