Leidos touts Black Arrow cruise missile for special operations missions

Black Arrow is ejected from an AC-130J over the Utah Test and Training Range in November 2024. (Leidos)

Leidos is pitching a production contract for its Black Arrow cruise missile to US Special Operations Command (SOCOM). The missile, also called the Small Cruise Missile, was live-fired from a US Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC) Lockheed Martin AC-130J in November 2024 at the Utah Test and Training Range, the only known weapon of its size to do so.

The test culminated a process that began in 2021, when Leidos began development of an internal research and development (IRAD)-funded missile, based on the company's experience developing the GBU-69 Small Glide Munition, a guided, modular, reprogrammable weapon deployed from the AC-130J, and the larger X-61 Gremlin, an experimental vehicle that demonstrated deployment from and recovery aboard an in-flight C-130.

SOCOM and AFSOC soon took notice, and in 2022 signed a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with Leidos to develop the missile, with a contract for further testing signed in 2024.

“While we invested the resources to develop the Small Cruise Missile, SOCOM and AFSOC invested the resources to approve it [to] go through all the safety boards, to integrate it into the battle management system [network, BMS] and the platform, [and] to pay for the range time [and] the aircraft utilisation,” Mark Miller, Leidos' senior vice-president for Missiles and Aviation Systems, said.

A December 2023 test series saw the Small Cruise Missile perform separation and electromagnetic interference tests following launch from the rear of an AFSOC AC-130J, one of the final steps before powered flight tests.