The U.S Navy has provided Naval News with the first official view of a P-8 Poseidon carrying an AGM-158C Long Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM). This comes after spotters caught glimpses of a P-8A airborne with an LRASM under its wing.
Naval News first covered the integration efforts in 2023 when the U.S. Navy provided photos of a LRASM slung underneath the wing of a P-8A. These fit checks were performed in July 2020 at NAS Patuxent River, with a test aircraft inside a hangar. Since then, integration work has progressed to include flight testing, signifying an ongoing commitment to increase the amount of launch platforms for LRASM in U.S. Navy’s inventory.
The P-8A Poseidon has been in service with the United States Navy since 2012, replacing aging P-3 Orions which originally entered service in the 1960’s. Manufactured by Boeing, the jet’s basis is a variant of the 737-800 passenger airliner which has been extensively modified to perform maritime patrol missions.
The P-8 offers advanced maritime surveillance capabilities, tracking both ships and submarines through its suite of sensors including air-dropped sonobuoys and the AN/APY-10 surface search radar. Augmenting its sensors is the plane’s suite of available weapons, including MK-54 airdropped torpedoes, AGM-84 Harpoon anti-ship missiles and now the AGM-158C LRASM.
Integrating LRASMs into the P-8A fleet will drastically increase the ability of the U.S. Navy’s maritime patrol aircraft, enabling them to strike surface targets from a standoff distances with high-end weapons.
About the AGM-158C LRASM
The LRASM is a stealthy anti-ship missile designed and built by Lockheed Martin. Originating as a variant of Lockheed’s AGM-158B JASSM-ER (Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Weapon, Extended Range) land-attack missile, the LRASM features a greater than 200 nautical mile (370km) range, incorporating Radio-Frequency/IR guidance, datalink, and a stealthy design.
The latest AGM-158C-3 variant expected to be procured for the first time this fiscal year improves on the baseline design. The AGM-158C-3 baseline will offer improved beyond line of sight guidance capability, enhanced survivability, and other software upgrades.
Lockheed Martin’s LRASM is currently in service with the United States Air Force’s B-1B bomber as well as the U.S Navy’s F/A-18 E/F Super Hornets with integration work ongoing with the USAF’s F-15 fleet, B-52 bomber fleet, the Marine Corps and Navy’s F-35B/C Lightning II, and now the P-8A Poseidon. The LRASM has also been trialed for a surface launch variant, with the missile having an increasingly diverse set of launch platforms.
With the P-8A adding an additional standoff missile to it’s arsenal, the aircraft gains the ability to conduct complex, networked attacks from outside contested airspace. This aligns with the force’s intention of delivering networked capabilities to the fleet as part of Joint All-Domain Command and Control (JADC2). According to the U.S. Navy, integration work between LRASM and the P-8A remains ongoing with additional tests expected.
