February 26, 2015 Saurabh Joshi – Stratpost.com

The new order for the Indian Navy's four HDW Type-209 submarines is expected to cost an estimated USD 200 million and the planned purchase is currently waiting on the US government's Letter of Acceptance (LoA).

The Indian government has sent a Letter of Request (LoR) to the US government for the purchase of 22 Harpoon missiles for the Indian Navy’s Shishumar-class of submarines.

India has already ordered 26 Harpoon missiles for the eight Indian Navy P-8I Long Range Maritime Reconnaissance (LRMR) aircraft for an estimated USD 200 million and 24 Harpoon missiles for the Indian Air Force (IAF) Jaguar aircraft in an order worth USD 170 million.

Dennis Swanson, the head of India operations for Boeing Defense Space and Security, the prime contractor for Harpoon missiles, told StratPost, “We see significant potential for the Harpoon’s capabilities to be applied on other platforms by the Indian armed forces.”

While India’s Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) is to integrate the missiles on to the Jaguar, Boeing will integrate them on to the P-8I aircraft, itself.

The new order for the Indian Navy’s four Shishumar-class (HDW Type-209) submarines is expected to cost an estimated USD 200 million and the planned purchase is currently waiting on the US government’s Letter of Acceptance (LoA).

The order will include ’12 UGM-84L Harpoon Block II Encapsulated Missiles, 10 UTM-84L Harpoon Encapsulated Training missiles, 2 Encapsulated Harpoon certification training vehicles, containers, spare and repair parts, support and test equipment, personnel training and training equipment, publications and technical data, US Government and contractor engineering and logistics support services, and other related elements of logistics support’, according to notification issued by the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) to the US Congress.

09/01/2014 by Paul Fiddian - Armed Forces International's Lead Reporter

The Republic of China Navy has received its first consignment of Harpoon anti-ship missiles from the United States.

Placed in 2008, the Taiwanese Harpoon missile order comprises 32 UGM-84L Harpoon Block IIs and pairs of UTM-84L training missiles and weapon control systems.

According to Taiwanese officials, the submarine-launched Harpoons will reinforce the Republic of China Navy's attack capability, supplementing the Harpoon missile variants already carried by its frigates and the Republic of China Air Force's F-16 A/B Block 20 Fighting Falcon combat aircraft.

Taiwanese Harpoon Missiles

When first placed, the Taiwanese Harpoon missile order irked China, which strongly protested. More recently, Taiwanese-Chinese relations have improved significantly but still hanging over Taiwan is the prospect of an invasion. It's for that reason that Taiwan is steadily acquiring new or upgraded military technologies.

"The [Harpoon] missiles will be able to extend the range of the...submarines' striking capabilities, enabling them to launch a pre-emptive attack when necessary", explained Andrew Hsia - deputy defence minister - in comments quoted by Taiwan's Central News Agency.

Sub-Launched Harpoons

Each submarine-launched Harpoon has a 150 nautical mile range, greatly extending the reach of the Republic of China Navy's current in-service torpedoes. All-weather capable, the Block II missiles have an over-the-horizon capability and, fitted with a 500 pound blast warhead, are designed to strike a variety of targets.

The UGM-84L missiles will equip the Navy's two Chien Lung-class submarines. Constructed in The Netherlands, these are modified variants of the Zwaardvis-class submarines, themselves based on an earlier US-designed submarine. Named Hai Lung and Hai Hu, the two submarines entered service in 1987 and 1988, respectively, and each has now been modernised in order to carry the Harpoons.

With the first batch of Harpoons delivered, the remainder are scheduled to arrive in Taiwan before the end of 2016.

Jul 9, 2013 ASDNews Source : Naval Air Systems Command

After approximately six minutes of flight time, one of NAVAIR’s test aircraft successfully launched a Harpoon missile during a live fire event June 24 in California at the Navy’s Point Mugu Sea Test Range and scored a direct hit on a Low Cost Modular Target.

Completing only one practice dry run, a P-8A Poseidon from Air Test and Evaluation Squadron (VX) 20 successfully fired a Harpoon AGM-84D Block IC missile from station 10 on the first hot run, which was later confirmed by onsite explosive ordnance disposal personnel.

“The successful launch of one of the U.S. Navy's most dependable over-the-horizon all-weather anti-ship missiles, the Harpoon Block IC, from the P-8A is a significant milestone in naval aviation,” said Capt. Carl Chebi, Precision Strike Weapons (PMA-201) program manager.

For more than 40 years, the Harpoon weapon system has served the Navy well by offering a low-level and sea-skimming cruise trajectory that supports high survivability and effectiveness. This air-launched variant of the Harpoon 1C is currently integrated on the P-3C.

According to Maritime Patrol and Reconnaissance Program Office (PMA-290) Program Manager Capt. Scott Dillon, the significance of this program milestone is that the P-8A was able to launch the Harpoon at a target and achieve a direct hit.

“As the Navy’s replacement for the P-3 Orion, the P-8A Poseidon will be performing maritime surveillance missions as needed by the operations tempo and the success of this testing evolution brings us one step closer to Initial Operational Capability [IOC] this fall,” Dillon said. “The test was very successful and the Harpoon directly hitting the target proves the system’s capability and lethality.”

The purpose of this test was to validate the weapons hardware and software integration. The weapons integration testing that was achieved last week at Point Mugu was a culmination for all of the lab development and integration as well as developmental testing over the past year to get one step closer to fielding an anti-surface warfare (ASuW) weapon for fleet IOC, said Paul Sheridan, the P-8A assistant program manager for system engineering assigned to PMA-290’s Weapons Systems Integration team.

At the completion of this developmental testing, the P-8A will be ready for Harpoon operational testing to support fleet IOC.

“This live-fire event was made possible through the efforts of teams across NAVAIR including PMA-290 and PMA-201 here, in China Lake and Corona, Calif.,” said Chebi. “The teams continuously meet the challenges placed before them from test-asset preparations, ground testing, separation tests and the end-to-end live-fire evaluation. PMA-201 will continue to support the P-8A program and provide solutions to meet current requirements as well as the integration of future requirements that will advance the Navy's long-range maritime patrol capability.”

Dillon and Sheridan agreed with Chebi that the Harpoon P-8A testing was a collaborative effort between PMA-290 and PMA-201.