[Source/Observer Network, Mountain Cat] On April 10, the well-known defense website "Naval News" reported that according to a statement from Major General Stephen Tedford, director of the U.S. Navy's Unmanned Aircraft and Strike Weapons Program Executive Office, the "Hypersonic Air-Launched Offensive" (HALO) missile project developed under the U.S. Navy's highly prioritized program "Offensive Anti-Surface Warfare Increment 2" (OASuW Inc 2) has now been canceled. The statement mentioned that due to budget constraints leading to an "inability to deploy new capabilities within the planned delivery schedule," the U.S. Navy canceled the engineering and manufacturing development (EMD) work bid for the hypersonic air-launched offensive anti-surface warfare missile in the fall of 2024.

"Offensive Anti-Surface Warfare Increment 2" was planned as the successor to the AGM-158C LRASM ("Offensive Anti-Surface Warfare Increment 1", OASuW Inc 1), aiming to provide new high-speed aerial anti-ship capabilities for the U.S. Navy's F-35C and F/A-18E/F. The U.S. Navy first indicated in March 2014 its intention to conduct a tender for the OASuW Inc 2 anti-ship missile, with this tender planned for implementation between fiscal years 2017 and 2023 to select a hypersonic anti-ship missile.

HALO was developed as the successor model to LRASM. Photo shows the AGM-158C LRASM carried by the US Navy's "Super Hornet" - Social Media

In a budget request document in 2022, the navy named this missile project the "Hypersonic Offensive OASuW," abbreviated as HALO. On March 28, 2023, the U.S. Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) awarded two contracts totaling approximately $116 million to Raytheon Missiles & Defense and Lockheed Martin for preliminary development of the HALO missile. According to some technical descriptions and artistic renderings disclosed during this period, HALO is an air-breathing high-speed anti-ship cruise missile carried by naval tactical aircraft, and it is expected to be deployed on ships and submarines in the future. This type of missile will form part of the U.S. Navy's hypersonic strike system alongside the "Conventional Prompt Strike" (CPS) missile, which has already been determined for deployment on surface warships and nuclear submarines using a booster-glide method.

Raytheon Technologies' (RTX) air-breathing hypersonic missile artistic rendering

Lockheed Martin's HALO missile artistic rendering - Social Media

However, at the "Sea Air Space" conference hosted by the "Navy League" (Navy League) the same year in April, Major General Tedford had previously stated that the naming of the so-called "Hypersonic Air-Launched Offensive" missile might be somewhat misleading. He admitted that in terms of speed, HALO might belong to a class of missiles exceeding four times the speed of sound (according to the U.S. standard commonly used, the minimum threshold for "hypersonic" is reaching five times the speed of sound, or not less than 6,125 kilometers per hour). However, he still claimed that whether or not it can reach five times the speed is less important than whether it can "quickly close the distance to the target" and achieve the degree of "not requiring target updates during flight."

The U.S. Navy once regarded the HALO missile as a "key asset to counter advanced and emerging threats." In 2023, NAVAIR stated in a press release that the two preliminary development contracts were expected to be completed by December 2024 and would aim to achieve flight testing of the demonstration prototype. In the U.S. Navy's expectations, HALO would fully begin development between 2024 and 2028, be put into practical deployment no later than the 2029 fiscal year, and achieve initial operational capability (IOC) by the 2031 fiscal year.

The report suggests that the cancellation of this project "significantly weakened" the U.S. Navy's "high-end anti-surface capability," especially eliminating a key component of weapons applicable to aircraft carriers in the future, which could originally have "targeted high-value enemy surface assets from long distances." However, according to the statement released by Tedford, the U.S. Navy chose to continue pursuing the current OASuW Inc 1 under these circumstances, i.e., to continue prioritizing investments in existing long-range firepower and conducting "continuous capability improvements" for the AGM-158C LRASM long-range anti-ship missile. This decision was made after careful analysis based on the U.S. Navy's priorities and existing financial conditions, considering the cost areas and project performance of the entire U.S. arms industry base.

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Original source: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7491983422382981658/

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