Ready, Fire, Aim–Navy AI Missile Guidance – MeriTalk

"Ready, fire, aim!" has never had much of a positive connotation, either in financial or military circles, but the Navy's newest weapon could be changing that, at least somewhat. The Long Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM), set to replace the service's 40-year-old Harpoon missile, takes a technological step forward in long-range strikes, using sensors and on-board artificial intelligence to let a target's own defenses work against it. It would allow a missile to be launched with less-than-perfect targeting information because it will be able to find the correct target while in route. Instead of just using its own radar systems to locate a target, the LRASM uses a passive sensor to identify the target's own radar signals, which warships always have powered up to detect attack. Meanwhile, the missile's advanced algorithms sort through incoming data to ensure that the identity of the target – say, that it's a cruiser and not a cargo ship – and to zero in on the ship's most vulnerable spot.