US Navy Photo The U.S. Navy and Boeing completed a free-flight test of the new network-enabled Harpoon anti-ship missile on Nov. 18 at...
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| US Navy Photo |
The U.S. Navy and Boeing completed a free-flight test of the new network-enabled Harpoon anti-ship missile on Nov. 18 at the Sea Range at Point Mugu, California.
Building on the nearly 40-year legacy of the Harpoon, the upgraded missile, known as Block II+, will have the ability to receive in-flight updates that improve the targeting and engagement of moving maritime targets.
capability to the fleet in 2017, giving the U.S. Navy a significant advantage in anti-surface warfare.”
The free-flight missile event was the first end-to-end functionality test of an inert Harpoon Block II+ from pre-flight to target impact. The test proved that the missile could receive target location updates from an F/A-18 while in-flight through its network-enabled datalink.
It then successfully acquired a moving ship target using its active radar seeker and guided itself autonomously to impact the target.
This test, the culmination of 152 lab-test sessions, 15 aircraft ground tests and 16 flight tests, will be followed by another more demanding developmental test in fiscal year 2016.
The AGM-84N Harpoon Block II+ will also have a new GPS guidance kit that will enhance the weapon’s navigation.
Harpoon is an all-weather, over-the-horizon weapon designed to execute both land-strike and anti-ship missions against a range of targets. Since introduction to the fleet in 1977, a total of 7,500 missiles have been delivered to the U.S. Navy and its 29 foreign partners.
