Boeing Company,
ST. LOUIS: The Boeing Standoff Land Attack Missile Expanded Response (SLAM ER) weapon system scored a direct hit against a remote-controlled, land-based moving target Jan. 15 in a flight test conducted at the U.S. Naval Air Warfare Center in China Lake, Calif.
“SLAM ER has demonstrated its effectiveness against stationary targets, moving surface-ship targets and, now, land-based moving targets,” said Jan Browne, director of Stand-off Strike Weapons for Boeing. “This advanced capability provides an added level of security for our warfighters.”
The test concluded a successful, four-part series of developmental/operational flight tests funded by the U.S. Navy Rapid Technology Transfer program. Previous test flights included engagement with remote-controlled mobile targets in 2006 and an operational test launch earlier in January.
For the Jan. 15 test, an aircraft equipped with the Navy Littoral Surveillance Radar System sent real-time targeting data to a Boeing F/A-18F aircraft, which relayed the data to the SLAM ER after the weapon launched from a second F/A-18F aircraft. The SLAM ER acquired and impacted a simulated mobile target traveling at approximately 12 miles per hour in a cluttered desert environment.
The test was designed to validate the radar system's ability to provide targeting information to the SLAM ER weapon, as well as SLAM ER's ability to acquire and impact the target with varied target speeds and background environments. This capability is now awaiting customer approval to become operational.
SLAM ER is a highly adaptable day/night, adverse-weather, over-the-horizon precision strike missile capable of hitting stationary or moving targets on land or at sea.
