By Kris Osborn, President, Center for Military Modernization
The Pentagon is surging forward successfully with the development of a next-generation, nuclear-capable air-launched cruise missile called the Long-Range Standoff weapon, a technology regarded as a critical element of DoD’s overall strategic deterrence equation.
In development for many years as a key weapon to arm the B-52 and emerging B-21, the LRSO is engineered to ensure a potential adversary is held at risk from the air at ranges beyond the reach of enemy air defenses.
While the weapon is largely “secret” for security reasons, it is meeting its milestones and completely “on-track,” according to high-level US Air Force weapons developers. As part of the LRSO’s integrated attack system, the Pentagon is currently developing a new W80-4 warhead for the weapon.
Major General Jason Armagost, commander of the eighth Air Force and the Joint-Global Strike Operations Center, said the W80-4 was fully on track and not impacted or in any way delayed by the rapid development of the Pentagon’s Low Yield Submarine-Launched Cruise Missile (SLCM).
“I’ve heard that everything with regards to LRSO [Long Range Standoff weapon], or the next cruise missile to replace the AGM-86, is going well and is on time,” Armagost said, speaking at a virtual conference hosted by the Advanced Nuclear Weapons Alliance Deterrence Center, (ANWA).
Global Threat Changing
Capt. Bill Ostendorff, a former Navy submariner who works on the Board of Managers of the National Technology of Engineering Solutions at Sandia Laboratories, told Warrior in a special NucleCast “Future Series” PodCast that the LRSO was critically necessary for the Pentagon’s deterrence equation given the seriousness of the growing nuclear threat equation.
“Many Secretaries of Defense and Chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, have said the most important mission for the Department of Defense is nuclear deterrence. And I subscribe to that philosophy. Our whole existence during the Cold War with the Soviet Union and now during a time period of intense competition with not just Russia, which has modernized its stockpile, but also that of China. China has rapidly increased the size of its nuclear stockpile, has modernized its weapons, and we still have nuclear weapons threats from North Korea and Iran,” Ostendorff said. Along with his current role at Sandia, Ostendorff is also the Co-Chair of the Committee of Risk of Nuclear War and Nuclear Terrorism, National Academy of Sciences. He was also the former Deputy Administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration.
LRSO
Over the years, some members of Congress have questioned the existence of the nuclear triad and suggested that perhaps dual-use and lower-yield nuclear weapons such as an LRSO can risk lowering the threshold to nuclear war. The concern is twofold, because the concern is that a conventional launch or use of an LRSO could prompt a potential adversary to interpret the attack as a nuclear attack, therefore prompting an escalatory or potentially nuclear response.
However, Pentagon weapons developers, experts and members of Congress have emphasized that there is specific protocol in place and appropriate channels of communication to ensure an adversary does not mistake a conventional strike for a nuclear one. Also, there are clear strategic and tactical reasons why the LRSO is critical to the deterrence equation. As a long-range weapon, an LRSO can hold a potential adversary at risk from the air from stand-off ranges beyond the reach of air defenses, something of critical significance given that it ensures deterrence in the event that there is no operational space above enemy territory.
Nuclear Triad
The existence of the LRSO also pertains to the overall pressing question about the necessity of all three legs of the nuclear triad. Ground-based ICBMs, undersea submarine-launched nuclear missiles and nuclear-armed air attack are all indispensable and necessary elements of the deterrence equation. This need, which is based upon the complexity of the threat environment, was confirmed last year by a significant Congressional study called the “Strategic Posture Commision” co-led by Senator John Kyle and former Principal Deputy Administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration, Ostendorff explained.
“The bipartisan committee,…validated the need to continue with the nuclear triad, so it validated the need to continue with the ICBMs and the Air Force bombers and the submarine-launched ballistic missiles. So I bring that up because I think there’s been times in the past when some people say, well, why do we need to have this bomber leg, for instance? That’s been revalidated by a high-level group just in the last year,” Ostendorff told Warrior.
This determination seems to make tactical sense, given the variables informing the threat equation; there are scenarios wherein an undersea nuclear submarine may not be in range or available for an attack, and ground-based ICBMs could have been destroyed or disabled by a “bolt-out-of-the-blue” nuclear attack. In this kind of contingency, the only possibility for deterrence would come from the air-leg of the triad. The thinking here seems to be that a potential adversary needs to be aware of the full envelope of potential nuclear retaliatory options available in the event of an attack on the US in order to be sufficiently and fully deterred from launching or even contemplating an attack.
The Air Force has been working with industry partners to “integrate” the LRSO onto the platform, something which will invariably introduce new concepts of operation for the B-52. The idea with the weapon is of course to afford commanders an opportunity to destroy enemy targets at much longer “stand-off” ranges to avoid advanced air defenses and prevent manned aircraft from being at risk. In the event that advanced enemy air defenses or other combat developments prevent stealth bombers and fighters from operating in a “stand-in” capability in closer proximity to an enemy, the LRSO can offer new air-attack options.
Pentagon, Air Force Say They “Need” LRSO
Pentagon and industry weapons developers, supported by a majority of lawmakers, explain that commanders need a wide range of options with which to ensure and strengthen strategic deterrence, meaning that the presence of the LRSO is much more likely to “prevent” a nuclear exchange. This view has prevailed thus far, given that the Air Force’s 2024 budget requested funds for the purchase of as many as 1,000 LRSO weapons.
Stealth Missile?
A significant essay in Military Aerospace Electronics suggests that Raytheon’s LRSO be build with a key “testing radar” to assess the missile’s Radar Cross Section (RCS). Available renderings of the missile do show a smoothly curved weapon with few protruding edges or sharp contours, a design typically used to ensure weapons and platforms can operate with the advantage of stealth properties. This would make an incoming LRSO much more difficult to detect by enemy radar. Sharp edges and vertical structures can naturally generate a much more precise electromagnetic rendering of an object as electrons have more shapes to bounce off an object and generate a return signal showing shape, speed and configuration of the weapon.
“The LRSO RCS must operate from 2 to 18 GHz; have a near-field radar frequency imaging capability; produce high-resolution 2D and 3D measurements; collect laser cross section measurement data; and be able to measure a system under test as large as 25 feet long, 20 feet wide, and 3 feet high,” the Military Aerospace Electronics essay explain.
The essay further explains the important of testing the weapon safely while also ensuring the assessments can “test 360 degrees azimuthally.”
“The LRSO RCS must require no ancillary equipment to align and register the target; control a rotator that will spin the system under test 360 degrees azimuthally; include a safety system to protect personnel and the system under test from injury; and be off-the-shelf and delivered no later than 12-months after contract award,” the magazine writes.
LRSO on B-52
In development for many years as a follow-on next generation weapon to the B-52-fired Air Launched Cruise Missile (ALCM), the LRSO brings a series of new technologies to the realm of cruise missile air attack. While many of the specific technologies are, not surprisingly, unavailable for security reasons, the concept for the weapon is clear.
Enemy air defenses such as Russia’s S-400 and S-500 and China’s HQ-9 system continue to become much more advanced, high-tech and precise. Russian media claims its SAMS can even detect and destroy stealth aircraft, an ambitious and unconfirmed claim which may not be likely in light of advancements in stealth technology. Nonetheless, enemy air defenses now operate with digital networks, and increased ability to share target detail across formations, much longer ranges and an ability to operate on many frequencies at one time. The intent of air defenses is to use both low-frequency “surveillance” radar which can blanket an area and confirm that “something” is there, however higher frequency “engagement” radar is necessary to achieve a target lock and actually destroy an aircraft. This second part, the engagement radar, requires much more precision and narrowly configured targeting systems which are likely quite challenged to actually “hit” stealth aircraft.
The improvement of Russian and Chinese air defenses however, are almost certain to be part of why the Air Force’s B-21 is engineered with what is described as an entirely new generation of stealth technology. Existing stealth aircraft such as the B-2, F-22 and now nuclear-capable F-35 have also been consistently upgraded with newer, more advanced stealth properties such as coating materials, improved thermal management, embedded antennas and other signature-reducing technologies. Yet another critical improvement regarding efforts to counter advanced air defenses relates to the arrival of manned-unmanned teaming, meaning groups of unmanned drones are operated from the cockpit of a stealth fighter jet to test enemy defenses, blanket areas with ISR or even deliver weapons while manned aircraft operate at safer distances performing command and control.
LRSO B-52 Integration
While specifics are not available, the Air Force has been working with Boeing to “integrate” the weapon onto the B-52, a task which requires technical interfaces, fire control alignment and connected command and control and guidance systems.
Nuclear deterrence involves a complex set of variables and concepts, and proponents of the need for some lower-yield options argue that commanders need a wide range of options through which to pursue its deterrence posture
Perhaps the existence of a range of US Lower-yield nuclear attack options could deter Russia or China from thinking it might be able to launch some kind of tactical nuclear attack without incurring a nuclear response.
Kris Osborn is the President of Warrior Maven – Center for Military Modernization. Osborn previously served at the Pentagon as a highly qualified expert in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army—Acquisition, Logistics & Technology. Osborn has also worked as an anchor and on-air military specialist at national TV networks. He has appeared as a guest military expert on Fox News, MSNBC, The Military Channel, and The History Channel. He also has a Masters Degree in Comparative Literature from Columbia University
