General Atomics is receiving interest from the US Navy, Marine Corps, Army, and Air Force on their Long Range Maneuvering Projectile.
At the Association of the United States Army Annual Symposium and Exposition 2023 (AUSA 2023), Naval News caught up with General Atomics to talk about their Long Range Maneuvering Projectile.
“We have a very unique long-range maneuvering projectile. Basically, our goal is to provide something that is long-range, twice the range of a standard Army M777 of existing rounds or rounds currently in development. But also something that has maneuverability to be able to essentially do endgame maneuvers,” Nick Bucci, Vice President, Defense Systems & Technologies at General Atomics told Naval News at SAS 2023.
LRMP is a guided round designed to target a variety of threats with its multifunctional seeker. While the details of this aspect of LRMP are not yet known, at AUSA 2023 Gary Hopper, Vice President, of Washington Operations at General Atomics, did mention that General Atomics’ work on hypersonics yielded some lessons that can be used in LRMP’s seeker.
Compared to traditional artillery shells, LRMP is a discarding sabot shot. After being fired, the shell discards the sabot, stabilizes, and then deploys wings at apogee. The wings, and unconventional design of the shell, aim to provide LRMP with ranges similar to those of rocket-assisted munitions. Bucci highlighted that the shape of the shell was “unique in the ability to provide the control and hard surfaces” needed for maneuverability and range of up to at least 150 kilometers.
For land and maritime targets, LRMP will glide to its designated area and then attack once the seeker acquires the target. But for air threats, according to General Atomics’ presentation, LRMP will be directed by a radar-based sensor and intercept the target by detonating ahead of it, creating a shrapnel cloud.
Compared to SAS 2023, LRMP’s appearance at AUSA 2023 was aimed at its capabilities against ground targets. However, at both SAS and AUSA, General Atomics highlighted its use as an anti-ship weapon, with media from both shows depicting LRMP targeting what seems to be a People’s Liberation Army Navy (Chinese Navy) Type 056 corvette.
Between April and October, LRMP received several refinements to its design. Naval News was able to view the latest iteration of the shell at AUSA, now a test round instead of the mockup seen at SAS. While viewing the test round, Brion Cornette, Director of Strategic Development and Advanced Weapons Systems, said that there are currently 10 LRMP rounds available for testing.
Hopper stated that testing with the Navy is taking place at the Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division and that the Office of Naval Research is involved. On the Army side, General Atomics is working with Picatinny Arsenal. He further emphasized the modularity of the LRMP’s warhead space, stating the round will have the ability to utilize different warheads. Aside from warheads, this modular space will be used for housing the microwave-based Electronic Warfare version of the round, which he said would be “mostly in-house development” compared to the kinetic rounds that are being developed by partners. An Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance capability was also advertised.
With the multifunctional nature of General Atomics’ LRMP Cornette highlighted the interest being received by not only the Navy and Army but the other services as well. Particularly, in its maritime strike capabilities.
“It can hit land, air, or maritime targets. So any services interested in those we’re talking to. Actually, we’re talking to the Navy, Marine Corps, Army, and Air Force.”
When asked about how the requirements set forth by the US Marine Corps compared to the Navy’s and Army’s, Cornette stated:
“They’ll be similar but they have target sets they want to reach out with guns to a 200 km range. But then they would like to have submunitions, that are potentially based on [an] RFP (request for proposal), to put on the front end of rockets.”
While the Marine Corps is in the process of divesting the majority of its artillery batteries, the service will still retain five batteries. As for the placement of LRMP on rockets, it should be noted that this RFP is similar to, or perhaps the same as, the Army’s Maneuvering Submuntions for PrSM and Sensor Fuzed Weapon Payload for GMLRS given the similarities in the description of the requirements and LRMP’s capabilities.
“Across the board, Army, Navy, and even the Air Force, are talking about lowering the number of salvos, put more kills per weapons system. So putting a bunch of these little things on a missile because that goes far,” said Cornette.
Hopper mentioned that a major reason that they were developing LRMP was a way to bring down the cost per round, stating that “the issue cannot be solved by firing a missile at everything in the world.”
Cornette told Naval News that there is the potential for a “contract or two” from the Department of the Navy next year. When asked about the Air Force’s interest, Cornette said that the delivery method for LRMP would be similar.
Both Hopper and Cornette highlighted that for the moment the objectives for LRMP are to make sure it works from traditional tube artillery first before moving on to other delivery platforms, such as rockets and air-launched platforms.
“I think for us it’s just taking baby steps now. We want to master out of one-five-five, this 150 kilometer notionally, and have the right seeker on it. Now go as fast [as we can], of course, but the key here is to make sure this concept works,” said Hopper. “We’re just trying to get this out to fireable demonstration,” he added.
