The RUM-139 VL-ASROC is an

anti-submarine An anti-submarine weapon (ASW) is any one of a number of devices that are intended to act against a submarine and its crew, to destroy (sink) the vessel or reduce its capability as a weapon of war. In its simplest sense, an anti-submarine weapo ...

missile In military terminology, a missile is a guided airborne ranged weapon capable of self-propelled flight usually by a jet engine or rocket motor. Missiles are thus also called guided missiles or guided rockets (when a previously unguided rocket i ...

in the

ASROC The RUR-5 ASROC (for "Anti-Submarine Rocket") is an all-weather, all sea-conditions anti-submarine missile system. Developed by the United States Navy in the 1950s, it was deployed in the 1960s, updated in the 1990s, and eventually installed ...

family, currently built by

Lockheed Martin The Lockheed Martin Corporation is an American aerospace, arms, defense, information security, and technology corporation with worldwide interests. It was formed by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta in March 1995. It ...

for the

U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage of ...

History

Design and development of the missile began in 1983 when

Goodyear Aerospace Goodyear Aerospace Corporation (GAC) was the aerospace and defense subsidiary of the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company. The company was originally operated as a division within Goodyear as the Goodyear Zeppelin Corporation, part of a joint project ...

was contracted by the U.S. Navy to develop a ship-launched anti-submarine missile compatible with the new

Mark 41 Vertical Launching System The Mark 41 Vertical Launching System (Mk 41 VLS) is a shipborne missile canister launching system which provides a rapid-fire launch capability against hostile threats. The Vertical Launch System (VLS) concept was derived from work on the Aegis Co ...

. The development of the VLS ASROC underwent many delays, and it was not deployed on any ships until 1993. During this development, Goodyear Aerospace was bought by

Loral Corporation Loral Corporation was a defense contractor founded in 1948 in New York by William Lorenz and Leon Alpert as Loral Electronics Corporation. The company's name was taken from the first letters of each founder's surname. History Loral Corporation o ...

in 1986, and this defense division was in turn purchased by Lockheed Martin in 1995. The first VLS ASROC missile was an

RUR-5 ASROC The RUR-5 ASROC (for "Anti-Submarine Rocket") is an all-weather, all sea-conditions anti-submarine missile system. Developed by the United States Navy in the 1950s, it was deployed in the 1960s, updated in the 1990s, and eventually installed ...

with an upgraded solid-fuel booster section and a digital guidance system. It carries a lightweight Mark 46

homing torpedo A modern torpedo is an underwater ranged weapon launched above or below the water surface, self-propelled towards a target, and with an explosive warhead designed to detonate either on contact with or in proximity to the target. Historically, su ...

that is dropped from the rocket at a precalculated point on its

trajectory A trajectory or flight path is the path that an object with mass in motion follows through space as a function of time. In classical mechanics, a trajectory is defined by Hamiltonian mechanics via canonical coordinates; hence, a complete traj ...

, and then parachuted into the sea. Beginning in 1996, the missile was replaced by the newer RUM-139A and subsequently the RUM-139B. The

torpedo A modern torpedo is an underwater ranged weapon launched above or below the water surface, self-propelled towards a target, and with an explosive warhead designed to detonate either on contact with or in proximity to the target. Historically, su ...

remained the Mark 46, though at one time an improved torpedo called the

Mark 50 The Mark 50 torpedo is a U.S. Navy advanced lightweight torpedo for use against fast, deep-diving submarines. The Mk 50 can be launched from all anti-submarine aircraft and from torpedo tubes aboard surface combatant ships. The Mk 50 was intended ...

was proposed and then cancelled. In October 2004 the RUM-139C began production with the Mark 54 torpedo. The vertical launch missile first became operational in 1993, with more than 450 having been produced by 2007. It is in length, with a firing range of about 11.8 nm or .Thomas, Vincent C. ''The Almanac of Seapower 1987'' Navy League of the United States (1987) pp. 190–91

References

{{Use dmy dates, date=June 2017 Anti-submarine missiles of the United States Military equipment introduced in the 1990s