The US Air Force is asking for nearly $1 billion to develop a nuclear stealth cruise missile with a range of more than 2,400 km for the B-21 Raider and B-52 Stratofortress bombers.

The US Air Force continues to develop a promising nuclear cruise missile as part of the program

Long-Range Stand-Off (LRSO). To develop the project, the service requested $911 million for the 2024 fiscal year.

What is known

The developer of the nuclear missile is Raytheon.The project started in 2015. In 2021, the company signed a $2 billion contract. The LRSO will replace the AGM-86B Air Launched Cruise Missile (pictured in the video below), which was developed about 5 years ago.

The goal of the program is to create a wingedmissiles that can break through the enemy's modern air defense system. The flight range of the LRSO should not be inferior to the AGM-86B ALCM, i.e. will be at least 2400 km.

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The US Air Force wants morethousands of nuclear cruise missiles. The LRSO will be carried by the B-52H Stratofortress and B-21 Raider strategic bombers. Production start is expected in 2027.

The LRSO will be the first stealth cruise missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead since the AGM-129 Advanced Cruise Missile (pictured below). The latter was decommissioned in 2012.