Langtrekkkende anti-ship missiler til USAF F-15E og til USN P-8A Poseidon - RealClear Defense

 

Air Force Begins to Embrace Maritime Strike Role

3/10/2025
By Jan Tegler

 

Lockheed Martin image

Defense analysts assert that the Air Force is embracing maritime strike in a way it hasn’t for decades.

Over the last year, the service has announced multiple efforts aimed at bolstering its capability to combat Chinese naval forces. They include an additional buy of Lockheed Martin’s sophisticated Long Range Anti-Ship Missile, integration of the weapon with new and existing fighter fleets and fast-track development of less costly, more rapidly producible maritime strike munitions.

The moves are a logical response to the challenges China’s ballistic, cruise and hypersonic missiles present for the U.S. Navy in the Pacific, said retired Air Force Lt. Gen. David Deptula, dean of the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies.

“The best way to achieve maritime dominance in the event of conflict in the Indo-Pacific is from the air, not from the sea,” he said.

It’s a notion Pacific Air Forces Commander Gen. Kevin Schneider acknowledged when National Defense asked how the Air Force views its role in maritime strike.

“The component commands of each combatant command operate under a joint warfare construct, which brings together all capabilities to bring effects. As such, the air component plays an integral role in joint warfare — one aspect of which is delivering effects in the maritime environment,” he said in a written response.

In early January, Naval Air Systems Command announced that it is working to integrate the AGM-158C-1 Long Range Anti-Ship Missile, or LRASM, on the Air Force’s new F-15EX and existing F-15E fleets.

The F-15EX, a modernized derivative of the aged F-15C/D air superiority fighter it’s intended to replace, is joining the F-15E as the Air Force’s only long-range tactical aircraft. Both Eagle variants can tote weapons loads that far outstrip those the service’s stealthy F-35A and F-22 fighters can carry.

The Air Force already deploys LRASM on its fleet of B-1B bombers. With a reported range of approximately 300 to 500 miles, the missile is also employed by the Navy’s F/A-18E/F Super Hornets and is being adapted for its F-35C fighters and P-8A Poseidon maritime reconnaissance aircraft.