The U.S. Navy’s Precision Strike Weapons Office has awarded two firms, Zone 5 Technologies and CoAspire, funding to progress development of a low-cost precision missile.
The funding was released via Other Transaction Authority agreements under the Coalition Heterogenous Affordable Offensive Strike (CHAOS) programme.
CoAspire was handed a $70 million grant and Zone 5 Technologies — which was acquired by Kongsberg in June — was handed $65 million.
Zone 5 makes the AGM-188A Rusty Dagger projectile,an open-architecture, low-cost cruise missile that functions as a hybrid between a precision-guided bomb and a traditional cruise missile, optimized for rapid, high-volume production. The subsonic missile flies at about Mach 0.6 and carries a 100lb explosive warhead.
CoAspire is seeking to develop a ground-launched, mid-range variant of its Rapidly Adaptable Affordable Cruise Missile-Extended Range (RAACM-ER) projectile.
CoAspire is adapting the missile to operate using a specialized booster and mobile surface-launcher; also subsonic, it flies at about Mach 0.7 and has a range of up to 1,000 nautical miles.
Thomas Akers, CEO of Zone 5 Technologies commented: “Zone 5 is proud to partner with the Navy on CHAOS and deliver industry-best scalable maritime strike capabilities to the U.S. and our allies.”
Portfolio Acquisition Executive Munitions Thu Van Hendrey commented: “These awards are the next milestone in developing an affordable maritime strike capability…By building in exportability on day one, we are positioned to deliver an affordable warfighting capability to our partners at speed.”
- You can read more about the firms on the CoAspire website and the Zone 5 website and more about the CHAOS programme on the DVIDS website
