{"id":26445,"date":"2020-04-20T15:55:53","date_gmt":"2020-04-20T15:55:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/uncategorized\/2020\/04\/20\/the-air-force-made-a-surprise-decision-to-sole-source-the-long-range-standoff-weapon-heres-who-will-move-forward\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T22:06:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T22:06:11","slug":"the-air-force-made-a-surprise-decision-to-sole-source-the-long-range-standoff-weapon-heres-who-will-move-forward","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/news\/your-air-force\/2020\/04\/20\/the-air-force-made-a-surprise-decision-to-sole-source-the-long-range-standoff-weapon-heres-who-will-move-forward\/","title":{"rendered":"The Air Force made a surprise decision to sole-source the Long Range Standoff Weapon. Here\u2019s who will move forward."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">WASHINGTON \u2014 In a surprise move, the Air Force on Friday announced plans to continue <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/air\/2017\/08\/23\/lockheed-raytheon-nab-contracts-for-nuclear-cruise-missile\/\" target=_blank>its Long Range Standoff Weapon program <\/a>with Raytheon as the prime contractor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The LRSO program, which aims <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/air\/2016\/07\/29\/air-force-kicks-off-competitions-for-two-critical-nuclear-programs\/\" target=_blank>to field a new air-launched cruise missile <\/a>capable of both nuclear and conventional strikes, is currently in its technology maturation and risk reduction phase, with both Raytheon and Lockheed Martin developing their own versions of the weapon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Typically, the Air Force would downselect to a single company in fiscal year 2022, when it awarded the engineering and manufacturing development contract that precedes low-rate production.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/smr\/global-strike\/2019\/09\/15\/decades-late-the-b-52-is-getting-a-new-nuclear-weapon\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/ALCM_LRSO_Resize.jpg_717466.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">Decades late, the B-52 is getting a new nuclear weapon<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">To keep the B-52 bomber relevant for its nuclear mission, the U.S. Air Force is preparing to spend billions of dollars to develop a new air-launched cruise missile.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">However, the Air Force decided to press ahead with Raytheon\u2019s design after an \u201cextensive evaluation\u201d of the company\u2019s technology as presented during the preliminary design review, said Maj. Gen. Shaun Morris, who leads the Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cOur competitive TMRR phase, which included both Lockheed Martin and Raytheon as the prime contractors, enabled us to select a high-confidence design at this point in the acquisition process,\u201d he said, according to an Air Force release.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cAnd this early off-ramp of a contractor is completely in line with the existing LRSO acquisition strategy, which included periodic reviews to assess contractor designs,\u201d Morris said. \u201cLockheed Martin has been an excellent contractor and partner throughout the TMRR effort and this pivot to Raytheon does not represent a lack of effort or commitment on their part. Lockheed Martin has supported the nuclear enterprise for decades and we continue to value their expertise in sensors and nuclear certification and surety.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Elizabeth Thorn, the service\u2019s program manager, characterized the decision as \u201cnot a downselect, per se,\u201d adding that the Air Force will continue to work with Lockheed on specific technologies that could drive down risk to the LRSO design or otherwise be beneficial to the program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Air Force noted that the company had begun the \u201ccloseout process\u201d to stop work on risk reduction phase of the program, leaving Lockheed\u2019s precise role in the LRSO program unclear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe\u2019ve supported our nation\u2019s nuclear triad for more than 60 years and look forward to working with the USAF to support the LRSO mission, specifically leveraging our sensor technology and nuclear certification and surety expertise,\u201d Lockheed said in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">LRSO is set to replace the AGM-86B Air Launched Cruise Missile or ALCM, but the program <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/digital-show-dailies\/air-force-association\/2017\/09\/19\/new-nuclear-cruise-missile-program-appears-safe-going-forward\/\" target=\"_blank\">has come under intermittent fire from lawmakers<\/a> who believe that arming aircraft with a weapon that could be either nuclear or conventional could unnecessarily raise the risk of miscalculation, triggering a nuclear war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Air Force has argued that it needs a nuclear missile that can be fired from standoff distances to enable the non-stealthy B-52 to remain a credible deterrent to adversaries with advanced air defense systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Due to the decision to select Raytheon early, the Air Force wants to shift funding that will allow the company to begin certain work early, such as flight tests, the service said. A contract award for the next phase of the program is still scheduled for fiscal year 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Morris added that the service was also confident in its ability to keep the program affordable in a sole-source environment, despite the lack of competition that usually helps the government negotiate a lower-cost product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Roman Schweizer, a defense analyst with Cowen Washington Research Group, said the Air Force\u2019s announcement prompts additional questions about Lockheed\u2019s future role and the information both companies presented during the preliminary design view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt\u2019s possible the USAF made an industrial base\/cost decision based on other long-range weapons,\u201d he wrote in an email to investors. \u201cSingling up on LRSO could have been an industrial base decision or a way to reduce cost and speed up development.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In a statement, Raytheon noted that the company is on track to complete risk reduction efforts by January 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cLRSO will be a critical contributor to the air-launched portion of America\u2019s nuclear triad,\u201d said Wes Kremer, president of Raytheon Missiles and Defense.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The service made the rare decision to downselect after the program&#8217;s preliminary design review.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":51897,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":67,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[101,24,88,89,16,26,65,67],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3305],"class_list":["post-26445","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-home","category-left-column","category-middle-column","category-news","category-newsletters","category-pentagon-congress","category-your-air-force"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"YQO3UAL4K5D73IWZW73V5C4RZI","arc_canonical_url":"\/smr\/nuclear-arsenal\/2020\/04\/20\/the-air-force-made-a-surprise-decision-to-sole-source-the-long-range-standoff-weapon-heres-who-will-move-forward\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Air Force made a surprise decision to sole-source the Long Range Standoff Weapon. 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