A Spike NLOS missile is fired in a 2020 test.
HUNTSVILLE, Alabama—The U.S. Army has refined its requirements for the Long-Range Precision Munition (LRPM) with a focus on loitering capability and is looking longer term at another way to provide increased firepower for its brigade combat teams.
The Army has been progressing on LRPM with a series of tests using the Rafael-built Spike Non-Line-of-Sight (NLOS) missile. Brig. Gen. Frank Lozano, the program executive officer for Missiles and Space, said Aug. 6 that LRPM has also been picked as a solution for the service’s Launched Effects-Medium Range program.
With LRPM, the Army wants a missile that has both a solid rocket motor booster and a small liquid-fueled turbo jet. The idea is to use the solid rocket motor for a direct strike, while having the ability to also have the system fly with the turbo jet to loiter and await queuing for a strike.
“It is a very complex problem,” Lozano said in a briefing at the Space and Missile Defense Symposium here.
The Army demonstrated the Spike NLOS for LRPM in 2021 and held a shoot-off in 2022. But Lozano’s comments show the service wants more capability, including the ability to loiter. Lozano’s presentation says it requires vision-based navigation, a robust data link and the ability for multiple simultaneous engagements.
Longer-term, Lozano says the Army is funded in later years for a program called Dragon Fire-Medium Range. The goal with this system is to provide increased capacity for Infantry Brigade Combat Teams (IBCT), placing missiles like the Spike NLOS, Lockheed Martin’s Hellfire or the Joint Air-to-Ground Missile on a launch on the back of a truck or a trailer. This will let the IBCT “mass fire” at a range of between 10 and 30 km. Lozano’s presentation highlights Dragon Fire Medium as an opportunity for future technology advancements and a potential competition.
In the near term, the Army is progressing on Dragon Fire-Short Range, using the BAE Systems Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System to fire at ranges of less than 10 km.
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