US Navy Seeks More Funding for Sea, Air Launched Anti-Ship Cruise Missiles

Supporting data for the Department of Defense's 2017 $30 billion budget amendment request to the US Congress contains a line item appealing to the US Congress for an additional $60.7 million in funds for the Navy's offensive anti-ship cruise missile.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The Comptroller of the Defense Department has listed supporting budget material online. Those items include requests from the military services for Research, Development, Test and Engineering (RDT&E) funding.

Line item 281 in the RDTE budget request shows a prior budget request of just over $252 million for the Offensive Anti-Surface Warfare Weapon Development. The 2017 budget amendment request indicates that $60.7 million more is sought which would increase the total funding to slightly over $313 million.

The Navy is prioritizing the search for a next generation of long range anti-ship cruise missiles known as the Offensive Anti-Surface Warfare (OASuW) Block II which can be fired from warships and aircraft. Long range cruise missile threats posed by the Russian and Chinese surface fleets, and the Navy's requirement to support land warfare over surface warfare, have created an immediate need.

Lockheed Martin's Long Range Anti-Ship Missile, Extended Range is a short term fix until  OASuW Block II needs are met.

The semi-autonomous guidance and sensor systems programmed into the next generation OASuW Block II missile will be able to operate in contested electronic warfare environments.