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Taiwan has reiterated its determination to attack Chinese warships and aircraft if they come within 12 nautical miles of the island, the Taiwan Defense Ministry's combat planning chief Maj. Gen. Lin Wen-huang said on Tuesday. The Taiwanese Defense Ministry regularly reports on the activity of warships and aircraft of the People's Liberation Army of China (PLA) near the island. On Saturday, eight Chinese military aircraft crossed the so-called "median line" of the Taiwan Strait and were spotted 24 nautical miles from the island. "If the PLA side continues to ignore our warnings along the way and force their way into...

The UK and Denmark have sent Harpoon anti-ship missiles to Ukraine which has led to President Putin ordering his warships to retreat 60 miles from the coast. Russia is desperately trying to fit warships with anti-air defences normally meant for land as Vladimir Putin fears Britain's deadly Harpoon missiles - which are being sent to Ukraine, according to reports. The UK and Denmark have sent Harpoon anti-ship missiles to Ukraine which has led to President Putin ordering his warships to retreat 60 miles from the coast. The humiliating climbdown suggests the attacks Putin was targeting on a beach in Odessa...

They are described as the best anti-ship missiles ever, and the UK is about to send its harpoon missiles to Ukraine to help combat Russian warships. The Harpoon is an all-weather, over-the-horizon, anti-ship missile developed and manufactured by Boeing Defence. The UK will send the Harpoon missiles in a bid to break the Russian navy’s siege of Black Sea ports. Fitted with a 500lb high explosive blast warhead, the system is carried by 600 Nato warships and 180 submarines around the world. The 15ft missiles are accurate to a range of 80 miles. Harpoon missile can be put on...

Sailors load a Harpoon anti-ship missile aboard the USS Olympia. WASHINGTON: With an eye on China, the Navy will begin arming its attack submarines with ship-killer missiles for the first time in decades. The weapon of choice: an updated model of the decades-old Harpoon. In a little-noticed announcement posted earlier this month on a government contracting site, the Navy said it was entering into negotiations with Boeing to refurbish and recertify Harpoon anti-ship missiles for Los Angeles-class subs. It’s a major shift after decades in which submarines focused on projecting power ashore — stealthily collecting intelligence or launching Tomahawk Land-Attack...

Sailors load a Harpoon anti-ship cruise missile on to the Los Angeles-class fast-attack submarine USS Olympia (SSN-717) on July 3, 2018. US Navy Photo JOINT BASE PEARL HARBOR-HICKAM – The Navy may once again arm its attack submarines with the Harpoon anti-ship cruise missile, after a sub-launched Harpoon performed well during a sinking exercise this month in the biennial Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) 2018 exercise. Los Angeles-class attack submarine USS Olympia (SSN-717) fired a Harpoon at the ex-USS Racine (LST-1191) during the first of two SINKEX events in RIMPAC this month. That shot marked the first time a Harpoon...

One of the most intriguing efforts is spearheaded by Airbus, and its target is the biggest hunk of junk in orbit — Envisat, the largest Earth observation satellite ever launched, weighing more than eight tons. The company wants to corral the floating behemoth with a giant space harpoon, and then drag it down into the atmosphere, where it will burn up on reentry. According to the BBC, the harpoon is currently being developed in England, and a small prototype will be tested during next month’s RemoveDebris mission. “If we can design a harpoon that can cope with Envisat, then it...

An artist’s representation of a Harpoon Anti-Ship Missile. Boeing Image Boeing is no longer offering an upgraded variant of its RGM-84 Harpoon anti-ship cruise missile as part of a competition to field an over-the-horizon anti-ship missile for the frigate and the Littoral Combat Ship, a company official told USNI News on Tuesday. “We’ve really taken a hard look at what the requirements are that [Naval Sea System Command] has looked for in the request. We’ve kept up to speed on every [request for proposal] modification and with that the constant change in the top-level requirements every time they do a...

ARLINGTON, Va. — The extended-range (ER) Block II+ version of Boeing’s AGM-84 Harpoon anti-ship cruise missile will be fired in test shots this year, a Boeing official said. The Block II+ER features an upgraded fuel system and a better warhead that enable it to achieve twice the range — at least 130 nautical miles — of a Block 1C version, the missile currently in the operational inventory. The upgrades fit inside the existing missile airframe, allowing the Navy to avoid the cost of more separation testing. The existing Block 1C missiles can be upgraded to the Block II+ER configuration. Troy...

Royal Navy warships will be left without anti-ship missiles and be forced to rely on naval guns because of cost-cutting, the Ministry of Defence has admitted. The Navy’s Harpoon missiles will retire from the fleet’s frigates and destroyers in 2018 without a replacement, while there will also be a two year gap without helicopter-launched anti-shipping missiles. Naval sources said the decision was “like Nelson deciding to get rid of his cannons and go back to muskets” and one senior former officer said warships would "no longer be able to go toe-to-toe with the Chinese or Russians". Harpoon missiles are unlikely...

Boeing’s Harpoon Missile System is an all-weather, over-the-horizon, anti-ship weapon that is extremely versatile. The U.S. started developing the Harpoon in 1965 to target surfaced submarines up to 24 miles away, hence its name “Harpoon,” a weapon to kill “whales,” a naval slang term used to describe submarines. It was a slow moving project at first until the Six-Day War of 1967 between Israel and Egypt. During the war, Egypt sunk the Israel destroyer INS Eilat from 14 miles away with Soviet-made Styx anti-ship missiles launched from a tiny patrol boat. It was the first ship in history to be...

The US Navy will wrap up developmental free flight testing of the datalink-equipped Boeing Harpoon Block II+ sea-skimming, anti-ship missile next week, ahead of fielding on the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet sometime between June and August of 2017. The latest variant of the 45-year-old Harpoon weapon type expands on the satellite-aided navigation system introduced in Block II by adding a datalink radio ported across from the C-1 variant of Raytheon's AGM-154 Joint Standoff Weapon (JSOW) for in-flight retargeting against enemy surface vessels in cluttered coastal regions. The Harpoon missile successfully struck its first ship target during a test in December 1971,...

The Littoral Combat Ship program is poised to make big strides this year in its strike capability, both with over-the-horizon missiles and the shorter-range Longbow Hellfire missile. The Independence-variant USS Coronado (LCS-4) will deploy later this year with the Boeing-built Harpoon anti-ship missile, and engineering is underway to outfit USS Freedom (LCS-1) with the Naval Strike Missile (NSM), a partnership between Kongsberg Defence Systems and Raytheon. Program Executive Officer for Littoral Combat Ships Rear Adm. Brian Antonio told USNI News in a May 2 interview that the Harpoon system will be installed on Coronado within the next month, in time...

For the first time in its history the Royal Canadian Navy has successfully fired a ship-based precision missile at a target on land. The frigate HMCS Vancouver fired the missile last week off the coast of California during a joint training exercise with the U.S. navy. The Harpoon Block II missile is an improved version of the anti-ship missile carried by Canadian frigates for decades. Before the upgraded weapons system was installed, the only way for a frigate to attack a target on land was to use its 57-mm main gun, which has a range of only 17 kilometres, compared...

Boeing Co. is recommending that new Littoral Combat Ships be mounted with Harpoon missile launchers this year before routine trials near Mayport, Florida, a company official said. In a recent interview with Military.com, Jeffrey "Scott" Jones, Boeing's global sales and marketing lead for the Harpoon and a retired Navy rear admiral, said a new upgrade kit that aims to double the missile's range makes it a strong candidate for mounting on the LCS and the frigate that will follow. The Navy's director of surface warfare, Rear Adm. Peter Fanta, called an over-the-horizon missile an "absolute requirement" for the ship in...

An artist’s representation of a Harpoon Anti-Ship Missile. Boeing Image Hoping to build off of the Navy’s extensive inventory of existing anti-surface missiles, Boeing plans to compete a modified version of the Harpoon RGM-84 anti-ship missile (ASM) for the over the horizon ASM capability for the Littoral Combat Ship and the modified LCS Frigate program, the company announced on Tuesday during the Navy League’s Sea-Air-Space Exposition 2015. Boeing’s bid would add a new warhead and a reconstituted engine for a range of more than 130 nautical miles — up from the about 70 nautical mile range of the current Block...

Taiwan's navy successfully test-fired two anti-ship missiles from a submarine, in the first such exercise since the weapons were acquired from the United States. The Harpoon missiles were launched from Hai Hu (Sea Tiger), a Dutch-built conventional submarine, during a drill last week, the Liberty Times and the United Daily News said, citing unnamed naval sources. The navy started taking delivery of the missiles last year to arm two submarines. The missiles, which have a range of 278 kilometers, would boost the attack capabilities of the two submarines previously only armed with torpedoes with a limited range, naval sources were...

Taipei, Dec. 26 (CA) The United States has begun delivery of submarine-launched Harpoon missiles this year, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) has said in a report to the Legislative Yuan. The anti-ship cruise missiles will become operational on Taiwan's two Dutch-built combat-capable submarines, the Tuesday report said. The NT$5.87 billion (US$195.46 million) deal, to be fulfilled between 2008 and 2016, is aimed at extending the country's undersea force's strike capability, the MND said. The deal reportedly includes 32 UGM-84L sub-launched Harpoon Block II missiles along with two UTM-84L exercise missiles and two weapon control systems, according to media coverage....

On runway 24 of U.S. Naval Air Station, Patuxent River, Maryland, a part of Boeing Harpoon missile history was recently witnessed when four of the proven Harpoon Block IC cruise missiles were uploaded onto a Boeing F/A-18F Super Hornet to undergo a rigorous flight test over the Atlantic Ocean. The test verified flight characteristics with the quad load-out; a Harpoon first. The test was performed jointly by members of the U.S. Navy’s VX-23 Strike Test squadron, PMA-201 Precision Strike Weapons team, Boeing Test & Evaluation and Weapons & Missile Systems businesses. “There’s probably nothing that has to be more perfect...

BAE checks Harpoon fit for anti-ship Typhoon BAE Systems has conducted first windtunnel tests to assess the suitability of integrating Boeing's AGM-84 Harpoon anti-ship missile with the Eurofighter Typhoon. An image released by the UK company showing a model of the Typhoon reveals the combat aircraft carrying three of the air-launched weapons. In this configuration, one would be carried on the aircraft's centre-fuselage stores station - ordinarily reserved for an external fuel tank - and two more beneath its wing. BAE Systems BAE says the test activity is intended to assess the aerodynamic characteristics of carrying the Harpoon. "This testing...

Boeing, US Navy Mark Harpoon Missile System’s 40th Anniversary By NewsDesk Harpoon is the Navy’s all-weather, over-the-horizon, anti-ship missile system. Boeing [NYSE: BA] and the U.S. Navy recognized the 40th anniversary of the Harpoon Missile System today at a ceremony near the company’s St. Charles facility. “After four decades of cooperation with our Navy partners, Boeing’s dedicated and talented Harpoon team continues to find innovative ways to meet the needs of warfighters on today’s ever-changing battlefields,” said Debbie Rub, vice president and general manager for Boeing Missiles and Unmanned Airborne Systems (MUAS). “Throughout the life of this legacy program, Boeing...