Originally published Cheap Cruise Missile Program Set To Evolve Into Air-To-Air Drone Interceptor on by https://globalsecurityreview.com/b-21-raiders-first-flight-what-we-learned/ at Global Security Review
Cheap Cruise Missile Program Set To Evolve Into Air-To-Air Drone Interceptor
A system called FALCO could turn the Extended Range Attack Munition into a new source of lower-cost air-to-air weapons with immense range.
By: Joseph Trevithick for the TWZ
Arelatively low-cost cruise missile that the U.S. Air Force is now developing could transform into an air-launched counter-drone weapon.
The service previously disclosed that it is also eyeing an anti-ship version of the ostensibly air-to-ground Extended Range Attack Munition (ERAM), work on which first started primarily to meet the needs of the Ukrainian armed forces. The Air Force has confirmed to TWZ that a “capability” called the Fixed Wing, Air Launched, Counter-Unmanned Aircraft Systems Ordnance (FALCO) is among multiple subsystems that could be added to future versions of ERAM.
Earlier this month, the Stand-In Strike Division of the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center’s Armament Directorate, based at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida, had put out a contracting notice regarding ERAM that named FALCO by acronym only and provided no further details. That same notice mentioned the seeker developed under the separate Quicksink anti-ship munition program, as well as two additional capabilities called Marshall Deck of Cards (Marshall DoC) and Shepherd, which we have now also been told are classified.
Originally published Cheap Cruise Missile Program Set To Evolve Into Air-To-Air Drone Interceptor on by https://globalsecurityreview.com/b-21-raiders-first-flight-what-we-learned/ at Global Security Review
Originally published Global Security Review
