New Era of Affordable Stand-Off Weapons for US Air Force

There's an old saying in military circles (and elsewhere) that quantity has a quality all its own. The United States Army exhibited this in World War II with the M4 Sherman tank, the initial marks of which were generally outmatched by German panzers like the Panzer IV, the Panther, and, of course, the famous Tiger. But there was also the apocryphal story of a German general commenting, "One Tiger is as good as five Shermans. The problem is that the Americans always bring ten Shermans." And behind those ten were another ten, then another ten, all the way back to the factories in the States. We won that war in large part because we overwhelmingly out-produced every other nation involved. We also improved our weapons, and fast; the first Shermans used a short-barreled 75mm main gun, but after the first experiences against German armor, that was replaced in later Shermans by a long-barreled, high-velocity 76mm gun that was much more effective against German tanks.

Now, the United States Air Force would seem to be applying this "quantity has its own quality" principle to stand-off weapons, like cruise missiles - going in for a lot of cheaper weapons, rather than a few expensive ones.

The Pentagon is moving to buy thousands of affordable cruise missiles, reaching framework agreements with three companies on Wednesday.
The deals fall under the U.S. Air Force’s Family of Affordable Mass Missiles program, or FAMM. The Defense Department said it reached agreements with Anduril for its Barracuda-500, CoAspire for its Rapidly Adaptable Affordable Cruise Missile and Zone 5 Technologies for its Rusty Dagger.
The move boils down to cost-effectiveness. The Air Force is betting that low-cost weapons can do the work the service once reserved for far more expensive munitions.

If the new cruise missiles are cheap enough, we could even shoot two or three at the target instead of one more expensive device, and still save money.

Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missiles, designed to be fired at heavily defended targets from a safe distance, cost more than $1.3 million apiece. The service wants its new missiles for a fraction of that, closer to $218,000 per round, cheap enough to shoot many for less than it once cost to shoot one.
The FAMM program splits into a lugged variant carried by fighters and bombers (FAMM-L) and a palletized variant dropped from airlifters (FAMM-P), both with ranges of 250 to 500 miles.

A $218,000 weapon as opposed to a $1.3 million one? That seems a bargain, even if the cheaper one requires two or three to service a target.

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This move comes at an interesting time, when the United States Air Force and Navy are expending a great deal of ordnance in the Middle East, most of it just the kind of stand-off smart-weapons described here.

Here's the thing: Technology gets cheaper over time. Just take a look at what a pocket calculator cost in the late 1970s, and remember that 20 years later, businesses were giving them away as promotional items, and nobody was taking them. As production increases, manufacturing practices improve, and more and more companies leap into the market, tech prices drop. For another example, look at what a state-of-the-art laptop cost 30 years ago compared to today, adjusting for inflation, and while you're at it, look at the capabilities of both.

There's no reason this shouldn't apply to weapons as well. And if this initiative bears fruit, in any future conflict, the United States can adopt one of the winning lessons of World War II - if the bad guys bring five missiles, we bring ten. And ten more. And ten more.

Editor’s Note: Thanks to President Trump and his administration’s bold leadership, we are respected on the world stage, and our enemies are being put on notice.

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