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U.S. Navy Completes Final Harpoon Block II Missile Update Test for Littoral and Land-Strike Operations.
The U.S. Navy has completed the final planned flight test of the Harpoon Block II Update missile, confirming its effectiveness in coastal and land-attack missions. The milestone ensures a proven and affordable weapon remains viable as naval forces prepare for contested littoral environments.
On February 5, 2026, Naval Air Systems Command announced that the U.S. Navy had carried out the third and final planned flight test of the Harpoon Block II Update (HIIU) Obsolescence Update program, closing a key chapter in the life-extension of one of its most widely used anti-ship missiles. Conducted in mid-January over ranges in California, the event confirms that the upgraded missile can still prosecute demanding coastal and land-attack profiles despite the age of the original design. In an era of contested littorals and dense coastal defenses, ensuring that an affordable, mature weapon like Harpoon remains credible is strategically significant for both the United States and allied fleets.
The U.S. Navy has completed the final flight test of its Harpoon Block II Update missile, confirming the upgraded weapon can still perform demanding coastal and land-strike missions despite the system’s aging design (Picture Source: NAVAIR)
The final flight test, carried out on January 16 at Naval Air Weapons Station Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake and the Point Mugu Sea Range off the California coast, was designed as a “Coastal Target Suppression” mission against a representative land target. Launched from an F-15 at roughly 12,000 feet above ground level, the missile transitioned through multiple altitude changes, descending first to an initial waypoint around 5,000 feet, then continuing toward the target area before executing a steep terminal dive. This profile is intended to replicate a realistic engagement in complex coastal terrain, where a missile must clear land features, remain below radar horizons when possible, and still arrive with the correct angle of attack for maximum lethality. According to preliminary assessments, all test objectives were met, validating not only the modified guidance chain and flight-control logic but also the integration of the updated weapon with the launch platform.
This event was the culmination of a three-test series designed to progressively retire technical risk across the HIIU mission envelope. The first firing focused on validating the guidance and aerodynamic performance of the updated configuration, ensuring the missile could fly the planned trajectory and respond correctly to navigation cues. The second test shifted to the maritime role, demonstrating engagement of a moving surface target at sea and confirming that the missile’s seeker and flight profile remained effective against ships underway.
The third and final test moved ashore, confirming effectiveness against a land-based objective and underlining the system’s dual anti-ship and land-strike utility. Together, the series shows that the Harpoon Block II Update can still perform in the full spectrum of missions for which operators rely on the weapon, from open-ocean engagements to contested littorals and coastal infrastructure strikes. As Capt. Sarah Abbott, PMA-201 program manager, stressed, “This milestone reflects the strength of the integrated government and industry team and their commitment to delivering reliable, relevant capability to the fleet.”
Behind the flight tests lies the broader objective of the Harpoon Block II Update Obsolescence Update program: to replace aging components and re-architect critical subsystems so that production and support can continue for years, despite the missile’s origins in the 1970s. Boeing, the prime contractor on Harpoon, has described the HIIU configuration as involving modernization across nearly all major systems to address obsolescence and to prepare for renewed serial production. This includes new electronics and updated processing hardware, improved compatibility with current operational flight programs on launch platforms, and an architecture designed to ease future upgrades.
NAVAIR has emphasized that HIIU “builds on the Harpoon’s 50+ year legacy by addressing obsolescence items and preparing the weapon to extend production around the world,” a point that is particularly relevant given the large installed base across more than 30 foreign partner navies. With system-level flight testing now nearly complete, initial deliveries of the updated missiles are planned for later this year.
To understand what this means in operational terms, it is important to recall what Harpoon Block II brings to the table. The missile is a subsonic, sea-skimming, over-the-horizon strike weapon equipped with a GPS-aided inertial navigation system coupled to an active radar seeker in the terminal phase. This guidance combination allows it to strike both ships at sea and fixed targets on land, including coastal defense sites, surface-to-air missile batteries, port infrastructure and other high-value facilities near shore. Carrying a blast-fragmentation warhead of around 220–230 kg (roughly 500 pounds), the missile is designed to deliver significant damage with a single hit. Harpoon Block II’s GPS-assisted navigation and programmable waypoints enable complex attack geometries, for example routing around islands or along coastlines before turning inland, which is particularly important in congested littoral environments where clutter and geography challenge older purely radar-guided munitions.
The HIIU flight profile flown in January illustrates how these capabilities are employed tactically. A launch from medium altitude provides the missile with initial energy and range, after which it descends toward the sea or terrain to reduce its radar cross-section and exploit ground clutter. Intermediate waypoints at different altitudes allow planners to clear friendly airspace and terrain obstacles, as well as to shape the approach azimuth toward the target, complicating the defender’s task of predicting where the threat will emerge. A steep terminal dive, in this case after multiple altitude changes, improves the probability of striking vulnerable areas of the target and can help defeat some types of hardening or cover.
For coastal suppression missions, this kind of trajectory allows a Harpoon to approach over water, transition over the shoreline, and then impact fixed radar or missile sites positioned slightly inland, without requiring the launching aircraft or ship to close within the range of shore-based defenses. The successful execution of this profile in the final test shows that the updated missile can still carry out such demanding maneuvers with the new hardware and software inserted under the obsolescence program.
Sustaining Harpoon Block II in service gives U.S. and allied forces a large stock of credible sea-control and coastal-strike weapons that can be launched from aircraft, surface combatants, submarines and coastal defense batteries. In practical terms, HIIU-enabled missiles can support scenarios such as opening sea lanes threatened by hostile surface combatants, neutralizing coastal anti-ship missile units ahead of naval operations, or striking port facilities used as logistics hubs. Air-launched profiles like the recent test provide fighter or maritime patrol aircraft with a standoff option that keeps them outside the envelope of many shipboard and coastal air defense systems, while ship- and shore-launched variants allow distributed forces to coordinate attacks from multiple axes. The ability to attack both moving ships and fixed land targets with the same weapon reduces logistical complexity and gives commanders a flexible tool for shaping the battlespace in the early phases of a crisis or conflict.
The Harpoon Block II Update underpins a broader effort to reinforce anti-ship and coastal defense capabilities across the U.S. alliance network. Orders for HIIU canister-launched missiles, particularly for Harpoon Coastal Defense System batteries, have already been linked to partners in the Indo-Pacific, including Taiwan and other regional allies, under U.S. Foreign Military Sales arrangements. For Washington, ensuring that these weapons remain supportable and in production contributes directly to deterrence by denial: adversary surface forces must account not only for U.S. Navy and Air Force launch platforms, but also for allied coastal batteries and ships equipped with the same missile family. At the same time, the obsolescence update is more affordable and quicker to field than entirely new missile programs, allowing the U.S. Navy to maintain a robust inventory while next-generation systems are introduced in parallel. In the context of contested straits, chokepoints and archipelagic environments, a modernized Harpoon remains a relevant instrument for sea denial and protection of maritime lines of communication.
The milestone also reflects the resilience of the Navy–industry ecosystem behind precision strike weapons. The Precision Strike Weapons program office PMA-201, part of the Program Executive Office for Unmanned Aviation and Strike Weapons, has led the effort to define requirements, oversee testing and manage integration across multiple platforms. Boeing and a network of subcontractors, many of them in the United States but also in allied countries, have invested in production lines and support infrastructure to respond to what has been described as a resurgence in global demand for Harpoon-family missiles.
Bob Cress, development team lead for SLAM-ER and HIIU, highlighted that the latest success was the product of coordinated work by program managers, engineers, logisticians, test and evaluation specialists, aircrew, ground support personnel and range teams on both the government and contractor sides. In combination, these elements suggest that the Harpoon Block II Update is not just a technical refresh, but part of a broader industrial and operational strategy to keep a proven weapon relevant in a rapidly evolving threat environment.
With the final test successfully completed and initial deliveries anticipated later in the year, the Harpoon Block II Update Obsolescence Update program is transitioning from proving ground to operational reality. For the United States and more than 30 foreign operators, the upgrade secures continued access to a versatile anti-ship and land-strike missile at a time when demand for credible sea-control weapons is rising sharply. By validating a demanding coastal suppression profile and demonstrating that the redesigned missile can meet all test objectives, the Navy has effectively bought time and flexibility, ensuring that the Harpoon family remains a viable option alongside newer systems.
In an era defined by contested littorals, gray-zone maritime pressure and the proliferation of long-range anti-ship threats, keeping this long-serving weapon modern and available sends a clear message: legacy does not mean obsolescence, provided the right investments, testing and industrial partnerships are in place.
Written by Teoman S. Nicanci – Defense Analyst, Army Recognition Group
Teoman S. Nicanci holds degrees in Political Science, Comparative and International Politics, and International Relations and Diplomacy from leading Belgian universities, with research focused on Russian strategic behavior, defense technology, and modern warfare. He is a defense analyst at Army Recognition, specializing in the global defense industry, military armament, and emerging defense technologies.