L3Harris showcased their Red and Green Wolf cruise missile at AUSA 2025, seeking to fill a vital gap in fires in both weight class and cost. Red and Green Wolf offer drastically increased stand-off capability for rotary wing aviation, with a focus on the use of network-centred warfare to give the U.S Marines, Army, and Navy a diverse long-range fires profile.
As revealed in an interview with L3Harris, the Red and Green Wolf cruise missiles fill a current gap in capabilities and cost within U.S inventories, especially among the Marine Corps. Among the two variants, Red Wolf is the kinetic strike option while Green Wolf has been tailored to fit electronic warfare and intelligence based mission.
Red and Green Wolf have been under development for the previous decade, with testing efforts in full swing. It has been disclosed by L3Harris that the missile has been previously test fired 45 times, including off of a Marine AH-1Z Viper helicopter with additional emphasis rendered to ongoing testing and integration onto a variety of other land based, rotary, and fixed winged launch platforms.
“We see applications across all the services, specifically with the Marine Corps. We have already launched our Red Wolf off of the AH-1Z Viper, the Super Cobra platform. You’re (currently) looking at missiles that on that platform that are in the 6-10 Kilometer range, now you’re talking about well beyond line of sight.” – Sterling Jones, VP, GM, Agile Development Group at L3Harris
The missiles themselves are of a sub 250 lbs (~113 Kg) weight class and can reach out to 200 nautical miles in range. Additionally, Green Wolf (the electronic warfare variant) can loiter over a battle space and provide information on targets emitting on radar in conjunction with electronic attack, enabling manned electronic warfare platforms to stay out of harms way and allowing larger pool of platforms to perform an Electronic Warfare mission set.
The pair of missiles are also designed to work in tandem, with Red Wolf receiving potential targeting data and electronic warfare support from Green Wolf on it’s way to it’s intended destination. Red Wolf has also been designed to service a multitude of targets, with both land and maritime strike capabilities present, achieved via a modular design allowing for different seeker head to be implemented.
Additional capabilities have been also evaluated, including the testing of the retrieval and re-use of Green Wolf, with L3Harris stating, “We’ve demonstrated that you can remove the parachute, replace it, refuel, and relaunch within 60 minutes.” Future potential variants include an electronic decoy to work in tandem with the Navy’s EA-18G electronic attack aircraft and a box-launched/palatalized version capable of being sortied from both land and sea platforms.
Red Wolf and Green Wolf are of a sub $1 million dollar cost bracket, costing $300,000 and $500,000 respectively, with initial production already established.
© 2025, GDC. © GDC and www.globaldefensecorp.com. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to www.globaldefensecorp.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
