Marine AH-1Z Attack Helicopter's Mystery Missiles Identified

Yahoo

02-05-2025

Previously unknown munitions seen loaded on the stub wings of a U.S. Marine Corps AH-1Z Viper attack helicopter in a picture released earlier this year have been identified. They are members of L3Harris' modular Red Wolf family of 'launched effects,' which can be configured as weapons, as well as for non-kinetic roles, including as communication relay nodes. At present, the Marines primarily see Red Wolf as a path to giving its AH-1Zs an all-new standoff strike capability against targets on land and at sea that could help ensure the relevance of the helicopters in future high-end fights.
Marine Col. Scott Shadforth named Red Wolf as the munition his service is now working under its Long Range Attack Missile (LRAM) project during a presentation at the annual Modern Day Marine exposition earlier today, at which TWZ was in attendance. Shadforth is currently head of Naval Air Systems Command's (NAVAIR) Expeditionary and Maritime Aviation-Advanced Development Team (XMA-ADT). He also provided additional details about LRAM, which he described as a 'defense innovator accelerator' effort feeding into a larger program of record called the Precision Attack Strike Missile (PASM).
In February, NAVAIR released the aforementioned image of the Red Wolf-toting AH-1Z, seen at the top of this story and below, at which time the munitions were identified only as 'a new Long Range Precision Fire (LRPF) capability.' L3Harris had also quietly identified Red Wolf directly as the munition seen in the picture in a release earlier this month. A Marine AH-1Z has conducted at least one successful test launch of a Red Wolf.
'So, the current [LRAM] effort that ADT is working on right now is based on L3Harris' Red Wolf,' Shadforth said at Modern Day Marine in direct response to a question from TWZ's Howard Altman. 'So generally speaking, range-wise, you're looking at low triple-digit range capacity on it and double-digit time of flight.'
Shadforth did not specify any units of measure, but the Marines have talked about a maximum range of at least 150 nautical miles (just over 170 miles or nearly 278 kilometers) for LRAM/PASM in the past. Assuming 'double-digit time of flight' here is measured in minutes, this would mean Red Wolf has a subsonic cruising speed.
Other details about the Red Wolf family, and the specific version that the Marines are experimenting with now, remain limited. Red Wolf was originally developed in secret for the Pentagon's Strategic Capabilities Office (SCO), and it first emerged publicly at the U.S. Army's Experimentation Demonstration Gateway Event in 2021 (EDGE 21). Aviation Week reported at the time that the Red Wolf demonstrated at EDGE 21 was a six-foot-long design powered by an unspecified German-made turbojet and capable of being launched by an MQ-1C Gray Eagle drone, but no pictures were released.
However, 'for awareness, we have several derivatives of the baseline that have flown and provide for a variety of ranges, payloads and capabilities,' L3Harris told TWZ in Febraury when asked for more details about what was seen in the picture NAVAIR had released. 'For awareness, L3Harris has developed a family of products to address long-range precision fire requirements for manned and unmanned platforms that will address a variety of customer demands.'
At that time, the company had declined to name what it had supplied to the Marine Corps. The XMA-ADT has also drawn a connection between LRAM and an unspecified Air Force munition in the past, but Col. Shadforth said today he was personally unaware of that.
'The most important aspect is that we're now giving VTOL [vertical takeoff and landing] platforms significant standoff [capability] that they've never had before, being able to deliver precision fires more or less over the horizon,' Col. Shadforth said today.
As TWZ has noted in previous reporting on LRAM/PASM, a munition with a maximum range of around 170 miles would dramatically extend the reach of Marine AH-1s. The missiles available to those helicopters now, AGM-114 Hellfires and AGM-179 Joint Air-to-Ground Missiles (JAGM), have maximum ranges of under 10 miles. Hellfires and JAGMs with tripled and doubled ranges, respectively, have been tested, but that still falls far short of what the Marines are aiming for with LRAM/PASM.
Shadforth also highlighted broader implications of the LRAM effort and the follow-on PASM program of record, including employing something like Red Wolf in roles beyond that of an air-launched munition. Interestingly, the Red Wolf demonstrated at EDGE 21 was employed not as a munition, but as a signal relay, according to Aviation Week.
'The opportunity that LRAM provides is the modularity that can come with it. So kinetic [and] non-kinetic capabilities,' Shadforth said. 'And then we can certainly get into an open debate of, is it a weapon? Is it an air-launched effect? Is it a UAS [uncrewed aerial system; drone]? How are we defining those capabilities?'
In recent years, the Marine Corps has already been experimenting with handing off control of long-range loitering munitions between aerial platforms, as well as forces at sea and on the ground, to prosecute targets at extended ranges. Red Wolf 'launched effects' configured as communications relay nodes could help further extend connectivity for Marine forces, including into more contested environments, and without putting a crewed platform at greater risk. They could also provide other non-kinetic effects like electronic warfare jamming.
'Being able to apply that capability, not necessarily having to break into the hard structure of the air vehicle, but putting it all on tablet, and controlling being tablet-based means,' is another important aspect of the LRAM effort, according to Shadforth. In February, NAVAIR had noted the use of the Marine Air-Ground Tablet (MAGTAB) as part of the testing of the then-unidentified munitions on the AH-1Z.
The use of a MAGTAB-based control system, in turn, could open pathways to more rapid integration of additional munitions and other capabilities onto the AH-1 and other Marine aircraft. Tablet-based control systems have been used in Ukraine to help add Western precision munitions to the arsenals of that country's Soviet-era combat jets. They have also been employed in Turkey as part of the integration of locally developed weapons onto U.S.-made F-16 Viper fighters.
Overall, what we know about LRAM/PASM continues to align with what Marine Col. Nathan Marvel told TWZ in an interview back in 2023, where he laid out a case for the continued relevance of the AH-1Z, as well as the UH-1Y, especially in the context of a potential future major fight against China in the Pacific. At that time, Marvel was in charge of Marine Aircraft Group 39 (MAG-39) based at Marine Corps Air Station Camp Pendleton in California. He went on to become head of the Rapid Capabilities Office and Science and Technology Directorate within the Marine Corps Warfighting Lab (MCWL).
'I was a bit frustrated about the conversation they were having about what the next fight looks like. It was about a fight with a peer competitor and the distances we had over water with China and that H-1s were not going to be there,' Marvel said in 2023. 'I was like yes they are. Not only are we going to be there but we are going to be right beside the Marines in the field because that's what we do.'
'Coming back to that interoperability, it's multiple pathways and multiple waveforms. I don't think we say kill chains anymore, because it's not a linkage of nodes, it's a linkage of webs,' he added. 'We may very well be an enabler where you're pushing data through us via voice and or data and we may very well be the end of that kill web or that kill chain enabler as well. We may tell someone where something is so they can go kill it or we maintain custody or someone may tell us where something is so we can go kill it like we have traditionally done. Interoperability is a huge focus for us.'
'We are going to be able to carry a Potpourri of weapons. It would not be unheard of to hang some exquisite fixed-wing fighter weapons on the wing-stub of a cobra and bring that to a fight,' Marvel continued. 'It may be a loitering weapon or maybe an exquisite pod that does only certain things that we're used to seeing on fixed-wing aircraft and bring that to the fight and put that down at the rotor wing level to enable the battlespace commander and the maneuver element commander to do things that they may or may not have thought they could do before. So that's kind of where we are with capabilities buildup.'
Whether or not Red Wolf is what the Marines ultimately pick for the PASM program of record remains to be seen.
'Right now, we're focused on the Red Wolf as part of the [LRAM] project that we're working on right now. However, we're very open-minded and always keep our ears to the ground to anything else that might be a viable solution down the road,' Col. Shadforth noted today.
Long-range 'launched effects' and small cruise missiles are a rapidly expanding and often overlapping area of weapons development, and there are likely to be a growing array of options that might also meet the Marines' PASM needs.
In the meantime, L3Harris' Red Wolf is at least helping the Marines lay the groundwork for integrating an important new standoff strike weapon onto its AH-1Zs, and one that could open the door to additional capabilities down the line.
Howard Altman contributed to this story.
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