Lockheed Martin's Long Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM) has successfully completed the first of three planned flight tests off the California coast. The test event saw the prototype LRASM released from a US Air Force (USAF) B-1B Lancer bomber and then follow a multi-waypoint course, before acquiring and striking a representative surface target. The LRASM programme was established by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the Office of Naval Research (ONR) in 2008 to develop a new generation of highly capable, extended range, anti-ship weapons able to penetrate sophisticated ship-borne defences, with reduced dependence on intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance platforms, on network links, and on GPS navigation. The programme's goal is to prove a series of 'leap ahead' technologies directly relevant to the US Navy's nascent requirement for a next-generation offensive anti-surface warfare capability.
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