The Navy’s Long-Range Land Attack Projectile completed its final qualification testing earlier this month and is undergoing safety testing this week, in an effort to receive its safety certification from the Navy in fiscal year 2014.
During the week of Sept. 9, nine LRLAPs were fired at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, six of which had been subjected to environmental variations such as extreme temperatures and different vibrations to simulate different transportation conditions the projectiles may face before having to still successfully fire, Darien Kearns, capture manager for munitions programs at BAE Systems, said yesterday. The outer canisters and the propellant proved to stand up to the conditions, with all nine shots hitting their targets, he said.
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| The Long-Range Land Attack Projectile finished its last live-fire qualification test earlier this month and has moved into safety qualifications in support of safety certification in fiscal year 2014. Photo courtesy BAE Systems. |
“These tests were designed to demonstrate accuracy, reliability, lethality, time of arrival control,” BAE spokeswoman Sarah Lundgren said at the Modern Day Marine military exposition at Marine Corps Base Quantico on Tuesday. All test requirements were met or exceeded, and all objectives were demonstrated, she said of the projectile that supports the Zumwalt-class (DDG-1000) destroyer’s Advanced Gun System.
Company officials agreed that the time on arrival control was among the most important successes of the testing. Scott Leitch, vice president of business development for BAE Land and Armaments business, said at Modern Day Marine that “it really did prove the timing issue on these shots–it delayed the round, it was within a second, within half a second, of time on target each time.” He noted the smooth curves the projectiles took to achieve both an accurate location and accurate timing.
Kearns said this ability makes “mercy missions” possible. In some cases, the Navy or Marine Corps may need to fire multiple rounds from the same tube and have them hit nearby locations at exactly the same time. The LRLAP testing proved the projectiles can take a curved flight path to achieve whatever timing the operators require.
LRLAP is undergoing safety qualification testing this week at a missile test range in Camden, Ark., Kearns said. The projectiles will be put through extreme thermal exposure and drop testing.
BAE is in the midst of producing hardware to support structural test firing, which takes place after the safety qualification testing and is needed before the Navy can certify the LRLAP system as safe. Kearns said he hoped to achieve the safety certification from the Navy in FY ’14 so that low-rate initial production of 22 projectiles can begin in FY ’15.