But will LRLAP really be any cheaper or simpler? 

I would agree if we were talking about firing standard 155mm rounds, but LRLAP is a totally different animal.  It has all the complexities of a gun AND a missile combined into one system.

Briefly discussed this issue over on that thread of the Excalibur video clips kindly submitted by ArtyEngineer.
WP_Smoke suggested he'd seen a document suggesting the M982 munition (Excalibur) fetched in at $150K.

 

A single LRLAP is physically bigger (length, weight) and certainly more complex in overall electronics components and control mechanisms than any Excalibur.

And yet we have people who think LRLAPs will be cheap enough to volley fire (MRSI?) a dozen or more of these AGS munitions for a single mission?

How much again does that then compare to the cost of a single Harpoon/SLAM weapon, or even a TacTom?

 

Pricing themselves out of business indeed!

 

 

But will LRLAP really be any cheaper or simpler? 

I would agree if we were talking about firing standard 155mm rounds, but LRLAP is a totally different animal.  It has all the complexities of a gun AND a missile combined into one system.

 

LRLAP should be cheaper compared to the alternative...Tomahawks. 1000nm range, turbojet engine, it's essentially a small aircraft.

Simpler...the flight path should be. I'm speculating now, but the Tomahawk, being an air breather, can afford to fly that terrain hugging course which it relies on for survivability.
LRLAP is rocket boosted. Like I said, speculation, but I'd bet it boosts itself onto an "approximate" ballistic trajectory before rocket burnout, then uses GPS for fine tuning the terminal guidance to correct for external factors only. So, like a JDAM...even if GPS is somehow cut out(the only soft kill method for LRLAP), at the terminal guidance phase, with INS, it should be pretty much be in the ballpark.

I was really referring to the guidance methods of other missiles that had been thrown out there like SLAM or a converted ESSM. Anything radar guided, GPS/INS with IR terminal guidance, whatever, is more vulnerable to a soft kill.

 

Also, AFAIK, AGS IS getting unguided ballistic projectiles. They're slated to have 300 rd magazines in each AGS mount....that'd be a lot of LRLAPs. And I believe the point of going with the conventional turret design rather than the vertical gun was to allow unguided projectile usage.

For the NGFS we train for, unguided projectiles have worked for years. The Mk45's GWS is actually quite capable at putting rounds down accurately for NGFS fire missions or even SUW/AAW...the USMC's complaint has been firepower and range(popgun capability), not accuracy.

Without getting into cost issues, Harpoon/SLAM weapons and TacTom are not nearly as capable as LRLAP promises for quick response precision fire support.
The other issue of course is range...SLAM-ER and TacTom can REALLY reach out and touch you...but they're also ridiculously expensive, slow to transit(air breathers) and slow to respond. Loading the targeting info to a TacTom takes some time.

If a SEAL fire team needed fire support NOW, and you were within 100nm(not unreasonable considering they'd be helo inserted), LRLAP would be the fastest thing available other than literally having F/A-18s on the spot.

Sorry, just to add on to the last post...that's also why SLAM-ER and TacTom constitute STRIKE weapons, not fire support. Different missions, different needs.

Sorry, just to add on to the last post...that's also why SLAM-ER and TacTom constitute STRIKE weapons, not fire support. Different missions, different needs.