The US State Department has approved an FMS to Australia of up to 200 AGM-158C, Long Range Anti-Ship Missiles (LRASMs) and related equipment for an estimated cost of US$990 million (A$1.47 billion).
The Commonwealth has requested to buy up to 200 AGM-158Cs and up to 11 ATM-158C LRASM Telemetry Variants (Inert). Also included are DATM-158C LRASM, Captive Air Training Missiles (CATM-158C LRASM), containers, support and test equipment, publications and technical documentation, personnel training and training equipment, US government and contractor representatives technical assistance, engineering and logistics support services, and other related elements of logistics support.
RAAF intends to use the missiles on its F-18 Super Hornet aircraft. The prime contractor is Lockheed Martin.
LRASMs are armed with a penetrator and blast fragmentation warhead and employs precision routing and guidance, a multi-modal sensor suite, weapon data link, and enhanced digital anti-jam Global Positioning System to detect and destroy specific targets within a group of numerous ships at sea.
Based on the AGM-158B JASSM-ER, the AGM-158C is also compatible with the Mk 41 Vertical Launch System fitted on RAN's Air Warfare Destroyers.