I mention the Pacific in the broader context of where the US Navy has an interest in and what possible areas it could encounter resistance from the ever growing Chinese naval presence over the next couple of decades. I'm sure when they field a fleet of 400, they'll like to venture out beyond where they currently operate with density. I think one thing to the Navy's credit is likely that they've packed some substantial anti-surface warfare capability requirements into the SM-6 1B (faster, longer ranged, and a new warhead and guidance improvements). That could come in provide an interesting capability that smaller enemy combatants may have a tough time defending against.
It's range when air launched is over 200nm / 300km, but I suspect rocket boosting it from a surface ship drops that way down.
A lot of publications keep referencing that range figure for the LRASM because it was originally what DARPA was looking for in terms of a threshold capability. LRASM, depending upon the way it is utilized, is going to be considerably better than that original DARPA requirement. I mean it starts off sa a 900+ km weapon so even with a different payload and an anti-ship role optimized trajectory you are probably still looking at a 300 nm air-launched capability. It should out range the NSM both because of its performance but because it is networked and can utilize third party data.
