US Navy Considers Army Missile for LCS

From Jane's Information Group

USN considers army missile for Littoral Combat Ship

By Scott R Gourley

Last year's restructuring of the US Army's Future Combat Systems (FCS) has brought one FCS element, the Non Line of Sight - Launch System (NLOS-LS), into contention for integration on the initial versions of the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS).

Originally developed under the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's 'NetFires' concept, NLOS-LS emerged as a family of artillery missiles fired from a vertical launcher that could be deployed by ground or air assets throughout a theatre and networked to quickly engage an enemy. System components originally included a Loitering Attack Missile (LAM), a Precision Attack Missile (PAM) and an autonomous Container Launch Unit (CLU).

In March 2004, the NetFires Limited Liability Company (LLC) - a partnership between Lockheed Martin and Raytheon Company - received a US$1.1 billion contract for System Design and Development (SDD) of the NLOS-LS. The milestone award marked the first of the army's FCS elements to enter the SDD phase.

However, in late July 2004 the army restructured the NLOS-LS SDD efforts, accelerating both CLU and PAM components and bringing the PAM into alignment with the weapon system needs of the US Navy's (USN's) LCS.