US Quietly Developing New LREW Long-Range Air-to-Air Missile

The US Air Force has been quietly working for the past to years on the preliminary development of a long-range air-to-air missile that it has designated Long Range Engagement Weapon. (USAF image)

WASHINGTON, DC --- The existence of a two-year-old project to develop a new air-to-air missile capable of intercepting targets at great distances has emerged in US budget documents.

The Office of the Secretary Defense (OSD) launched a two-year engineering assessment of a new long-range engagement weapon (LREW) designed with the goal of “maintaining air dominance”, according to budget documents released last March.

Analyses of the design, engineering and kill chain requirements were expected to be complete in the last fiscal year, although details are classified. “When successful, LREW will transition to multiple services,” the documents show.

Though funded for more than two years, the LREW project had escaped notice in an obscure budget line item for an OSD account named “emerging capabilities technology development”, which is mostly reserved for small electronic warfare projects. (end of excerpt)

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