HAAWC Eye

Lockheed Martin successfully dropped an MK-54 torpedo from a P-3 aircraft flying at 8,000 feet. The test was part of the company's $3 million U.S. Navy contract to prove the High-Altitude Anti-Submarine Warfare Weapons Concept, or HAAWC .

The HAAWC concept uses Lockheed Martin's LongShot wing adapter kit to give the torpedo a range well in excess of 10 nautical miles, which keeps the aircraft out of harm's way. Lockheed Martin says the concept also enables "off axis" torpedo launches so the aircraft doesn't have to manuever. The Longshot can be used to extend the range and provide autonomous guidance to air-to-surface munitions including sea mines, dumb bombs, laser-guided bombs and tactical munitions dispensers.

In an interview for DTI's The Cutting Edge column last fall, Alan Jackson, the company's HAAWC program director, said the wing kit could eventually enable bomb damage assessment and deployment of sea mines and sonobuoys. The wing kit costs about $100,000 a copy and has been tested by the Air Force for delivering the MK-83 1,000 pound and laser-guided bombs, as well as CBU-87 tactical munitions dispensers on F-16 aircraft.

--Catherine MacRae Hockmuth