When faced with a near-peer rival such as China, the United States military will need offensive weapons that can fight from over the horizon. The LRASM is one such weapon.
On March 4, 2025, American defense contractor Lockheed Martin announced that it had successfully tested the AGM-158C Long Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM) weapon by firing it from an F-35B Lightning II. This successful test comes on the heels of the successful test firing of the LRASM from an F-35C in the fall of 2024.
The September 2024 test on the F-35C was done for the United States Navy. The successful test firing of the LRASM on March 4 of this year was done for the US Marine Corps, indicating a desire on the part of the Pentagon to make the Marines a truly versatile attack force.
The F-35 Achieves an Important Milestone
According to The Aviationist, the successful testing of the AGM-158C LRASM comes after Lockheed celebrated the fact that the F-35 fleet achieved “one million flight hours worldwide.” Per the trade publication, “This impressive result is based on the cumulative flight hours from all 16 services that are currently operating the F-35, with over 1,100 aircraft across 48 bases in ten nations.”
As for the F-35B’s specific weapons set and how the inclusion of the LRASM adds to its capabilities, it is adding another layer of offensive weapons to an already offense-minded craft. The F-35B is already equipped to carry two AIM-120C air-to-air missiles, two 1,000-pound GBU-32 Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) guided bombs, and the Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM).
The LRASM: The Gold Standard for Anti-Ship Missiles
The LRASM began its long journey in 2009, when DARPA initiated the program to replace the aging AGM-84 Harpoon. The LRASM emerged as a subsonic, air-launched weapon with a 1,000-pound penetrating warhead. Its first successful test came in 2013, and by 2018, it had achieved early operational capability on the iconic B-1B Lancer and F/A-18 E/F Super Hornet. Since the F-35 Lightning II is meant to be the primary warplane of the U.S. military’s air services, the Pentagon is now integrating the LRASM into this airframe.
There is another variant of the LRASM that is meant to be launched from the ground in testing as well, showcasing the versatility of the system.
Lockheed Martin designed the LRASM with the modern threat environment in mind. Under present conditions, when faced with a near-peer rival such as China, the United States military will need offensive weapons that can fight from over the horizon. The LRASM achieves this: it has an impressive range of nearly 345 miles, with some estimating that it could ultimately go as far as 575 miles, when the weapon is completed and out of its test phase.
What’s more, the weapon has a low-observable design (due to its stealth shaping and radar-absorbent materials) to minimize detection. An advanced multi-mode sensor suite, including a passive radio-frequency seeker and imaging infrared, enables autonomous target recognition. Utilizing a “fire-and-forget” model, the weapon can semi-autonomously navigate to its target using a combination of Global Positioning System (GPS) and inertial guidance (INS) capabilities.
It is an expensive system, like so many American-made weapons today—costing roughly $3-to-$4 million per unit. But when the LRASM faces China’s 355-ship fleet, including aircraft carriers and Type 055 destroyers bristling with advanced anti-air missiles, it might be just the weapon America needs to restore deterrence.
U.S. Navy Admiral Samuel Paparo, the head of the United States Indo-Pacific Command (INDOPACOM), has assessed that the only hope for the United States to defeat a Chinese invasion and/or blockade of Taiwan would be to deploy swarms of drones and missiles. This plan is known in naval circles as “Hellscape.” The idea is to swarm the advancing People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) warships before they can pose a threat to U.S. and allied systems nearby.
The LRASM Has Weaknesses, Too
Despite the successes the LRASM has enjoyed, its promise may never be fulfilled. That’s because, as mentioned before, it is expensive. More importantly, though, it is slow. Traveling at subsonic speeds, even though it has stealth features, it would be vulnerable to enemy attacks.
And in the age of hypersonic weapons, the fact that the Pentagon would spend so much of its increasingly constrained budget on this system seems counterintuitive—especially when both Russia and China have large arsenals of working hypersonic weapons.
What’s more, if the Pentagon cannot afford enough of these systems, or if America’s anemic defense industrial base cannot reliably and efficiently produce enough of these systems en masse in a timely manner, then the entire endeavor will have been a waste. China’s threat is today, not ten years from now.
Nevertheless, the recent announcement that the LRASM was successfully integrated with another variant of the F-35 is generally good news. It’s just sad that we must rely upon a Cold War-style weapon to fight twenty-first century threats of the kind that both China and Russia pose.
About the Author: Brandon J. Weichert
Brandon J. Weichert, a Senior National Security Editor at The National Interest as well as a Senior Fellow at the Center for the National Interest, and a contributor at Popular Mechanics, consults regularly with various government institutions and private organizations on geopolitical issues. Weichert’s writings have appeared in multiple publications, including the Washington Times, National Review, The American Spectator, MSN, the Asia Times, and countless others. His books include Winning Space: How America Remains a Superpower, Biohacked: China’s Race to Control Life, and The Shadow War: Iran’s Quest for Supremacy. His newest book, A Disaster of Our Own Making: How the West Lost Ukraine is available for purchase wherever books are sold. He can be followed via Twitter @WeTheBrandon.
Image: Wikimedia Commons.
