Acceleration of LRSO proposed by Senate defense authorizers

The Senate Armed Services Committee’s fiscal 2026 bill would provide nearly $756 million for the U.S. Air Force AGM-181 Long Range Standoff (LRSO) nuclear-tipped cruise missile.

The figure proposed for the LRSO by RTX–$149 million in the National Defense Authorization Act is more than requested by the Air Force. This number would include $141 million to accelerate the program and $8 million for “conventional variant advance planning.”

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is refurbishing the W80-4 warhead, through a life extension program, to tip the LRSO.

According to NNSA’s fiscal 2025 stockpile stewardship and management plan, fiscal 2027 is to mark the first production unit of the W80-4.

The Air Force has targeted a Milestone C production decision for LRSO in fiscal 2027 and has said that it wants LRSO to be operational in the early 2030s.

The B-52H is to get a new rotary launcher for LRSO, and eventually the Air Force wants LRSO to fly aboard the Northrop Grumman B-21 Raider stealth bomber.

The Air Force’s 2nd Bomb Wing at Barksdale AFB, La., is to be the lead wing for acceptance of LRSO, possibly in the next five years, but that timeline and the fielding of LRSO may move to the right due to the simultaneous B-52H modernization efforts–the Commercial Engine Replacement Program (CERP) to replace the plane’s eight Pratt & Whitney TF33-PW-103 engines with more powerful Rolls-Royce F130s and the Radar Modernization Program (RMP) to replace the bomber’s Northrop Grumman APQ-166 with an active electronically scanned array radar based on RTX’s APG-79.

The F130 may allow the B-52H to fly from the U.S. to Australia, for example, without refueling.

The B-52s with CERP and RMP will be the “new” B-52Js.

Last year, U.S. Strategic Command said that it was considering requirements to accelerate and increase the planned buy of 1,087 LRSOs.

Exchange Monitor affiliate Defense Daily contributed to this report.