The US Navy is seeking early industry input on a new medium-range maritime strike weapon system that can be fired across warfare domains and used by numerous other countries, with a preliminary goal to start production in fiscal year 2027, Breaking Defense reports.
“Many coalition partners are reaching the point of diminishing returns with regard to the cost to modernize and sustain their mid-range maritime strike weapons capabilities,” according to the July 16 solicitation from Naval Air Systems Command. “The [US Navy] intends to harness interest from the coalition partners and the national interest in expanding munitions production capacity that would successfully field an affordable munition on a relevant time scale for coalition use.”
With that in mind, NAVAIR is spearheading the prototyping, development and rapid production of a “widely affordable and exportable” of being fired by both ships and aircraft, dubbed the “Coalition Affordable Maritime Strike Weapon System” (CAMS).
The solicitation does not elaborate on which countries NAVAIR considers part of the “coalition” and interested in such a weapon. Breaking Defense has reached out to the Navy for comment.
NAVAIR describes CAMS as capable of striking at a minimum of 140 nautical miles. From a plane, it would achieve that distance while as high as 40,000 feet above ground level, and a ship-launched variant would be fired using a vertical launch system.
“Designing for ease of production in surface, sub-surface, and air-launch variants will expand partnership and cost-sharing opportunities. Internal-carriage air-launch configurations likely maximize this potential, if acceptable range and payload tradeoffs can be managed,” according to the notice.
The solicitation states CAMS should cost approximately $1.5 million per all-up-round and industry’s production capacity should be at least 250 rounds per year. A low-rate initial production contract, if the Navy proceeds as described, would be awarded in the first quarter of fiscal 2027.
