The U.S. Navy this week released a draft Request for Solution to design a prototype for a “survivable sea-based capability” for the nuclear-armed, sea-launched cruise missile flight system.
Capability requirement responses are due by May 5 at 5:00 p.m. Eastern time.
A planned nuclear-armed, sea-launched cruise missile (SLCM-N) would be deployed on the Virginia-class submarines and would include a variant of the W80-4 air-launched cruise missile warhead. The W80-4 is something the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is already working on.
The fiscal 2024 National Defense Authorization Act directed the Navy and the NNSA to develop and deploy SLCM-N by 2034. The W80-4 warhead, while facing some delays in 2022, is currently “on schedule,” a senior official at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory told the Exchange Monitor in December. Even so, this past summer then-NNSA Administrator Jill Hruby said the agency was also looking at other possible warhead fits if delays persist.
