Next-generation nuclear cruise missile may help to circumvent ever-improving enemy air defenses
WASHINGTON – Should major global powers be immersed in a high-stakes, dangerous escalation of tension, raising the possibility of a nuclear confrontation, could the existence of a long-range nuclear-armed cruise missile provide that unique additional variable necessary to keep the peace? Fox News reports. Continue reading original article
The Military & Aerospace Electronics take:
11 July 2019 -- Such is the Air Force thinking when it comes to the current developmental trajectory for its emerging Long-Range Standoff Weapon (LRSO) -- a new, aircraft-launched nuclear cruise missile engineered to prevent nuclear conflict by holding enemy targets at risk potentially inaccessible to other methods of attack.
The LRSO ‘will allow the Air Force to ‘counter adversaries’ ever-improving integrated air defenses with a lethal, tailorable, standoff nuclear strike capability,” Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein, told an audience at a recent Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies Nuclear Deterrence event, according to transcripts. The LRSO will be operational by 2030, Goldfein said.
The weapon will provide commanders with a wider range of options, as a bomber-launched nuclear cruise missile brings the prospect of deterring nuclear attack without needing to have a stealth bomber actually penetrate the airspace.
Related: Air Force ramping-up production of subsonic Long-Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM)
John Keller, chief editor
Military & Aerospace Electronics
