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Ares Industries, a new U.S. defense start-up, says it began flight testing of a compact and relatively low-cost anti-ship cruise missile concept within 11 weeks of its founding. This comes amid a new surge in interest in cheaper stand-off munitions within the U.S. military as it shifts its focus to preparing for conflicts with high-end fights, especially one against China in the Pacific, that could require massive expenditure of munitions. A growing consensus is also emerging within America’s armed forces that large established prime contractors will not be able to meet these demands alone and that more attention should be given to what smaller firms have to offer.“Ares is building a new class of anti-ship cruise missiles. We are going to deliver the capabilities that the DoD wants in a form factor that’s 10x smaller and 10x cheaper,” according to the release. “Our missiles will be compatible with existing launch platforms, deliver smaller payloads at high subsonic speeds, and take out ships hundreds of miles away. We’re focusing on ground and ship-launched variants to start but will expand into air-launched versions, as well as versions with extended ranges and different payloads.”
“We spent the summer building multiple prototypes and flight-testing them in the Mojave,” the release adds. “In 11 weeks, we went from starting the company to flight testing with our own design.”Ares does not yet appear to have released any hard specifications, current or planned, but says that it is targeting a $300,000 unit cost for its missiles. The company has also drawn a comparison between this goal and current anti-ship cruise missiles that cost around $3 million apiece, which appears to be a reference to Lockheed Martin’s AGM-158C Long Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM).
It appears the new trend is cheaper and a lot of it.
Ares Industries, a new U.S. defense start-up, says it began flight testing of a compact and relatively low-cost anti-ship cruise missile concept within 11 weeks of its founding. This comes amid a new surge in interest in cheaper stand-off munitions within the U.S. military as it shifts its focus to preparing for conflicts with high-end fights, especially one against China in the Pacific, that could require massive expenditure of munitions. A growing consensus is also emerging within America’s armed forces that large established prime contractors will not be able to meet these demands alone and that more attention should be given to what smaller firms have to offer.“Ares is building a new class of anti-ship cruise missiles. We are going to deliver the capabilities that the DoD wants in a form factor that’s 10x smaller and 10x cheaper,” according to the release. “Our missiles will be compatible with existing launch platforms, deliver smaller payloads at high subsonic speeds, and take out ships hundreds of miles away. We’re focusing on ground and ship-launched variants to start but will expand into air-launched versions, as well as versions with extended ranges and different payloads.”
“We spent the summer building multiple prototypes and flight-testing them in the Mojave,” the release adds. “In 11 weeks, we went from starting the company to flight testing with our own design.”Ares does not yet appear to have released any hard specifications, current or planned, but says that it is targeting a $300,000 unit cost for its missiles. The company has also drawn a comparison between this goal and current anti-ship cruise missiles that cost around $3 million apiece, which appears to be a reference to Lockheed Martin’s AGM-158C Long Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM).
It appears the new trend is cheaper and a lot of it.
statistics: Posted by Rebcop — 6:02 PM - 1 day ago — Replies 1 — Views 29