More than any other technology, evolving missile capabilities will define the future of naval operations and require the continued development of new operational concepts. Naval officers will be kept busy identifying offensive capabilities they need to deploy, as well as the missile threat they will have to counter in the next several decades. This evolution in naval warfare will equal the advent of the aircraft and its impact on naval operations, albeit at a slower pace without the crucible of war.
During this decade, the missile evolution will bring new missions to naval forces such as theatre ballistic missile defence (TBMD) and ballistic naval surface fire support (BNSFS). Naval deep strike arrived this decade when the cruise missile became a major element in defeating the Iraqi fighting capability during the Gulf war. Even more routine use of preci-sion strike weapons followed in Bosnia.
While the Tomahawk cruise missile has been in existence for decades, only in the recent past has it been used as a part of regular US naval operations, setting new standards in opera-tional concepts and, most importantly, remov-ing the political restrictions that set it apart from other weapons.
| The Phalanx Block 1B integrates a forward looking infrared (FLIR) seeker with the existing radar |
With the advent of increased ranges and improved accuracy at reduced cost, the naval missile applications will expand to what might be referred to as national missions. These are missions and capabilities that a nation must possess independent of its naval forces. Therefore, in addition to traditional missions of protecting commerce, keeping sea lines of communications open, protecting coastal areas and projecting power via amphibious forces, naval forces will have a new role in the develop-ment of TBMD and ballistic missile power projection and the expanded deployment of existing cruise missiles to protect friendly ground forces, defeat massed enemy forces and destroy enemy infrastructure. When missile capabilities are integrated with air forces, the envelope of power from the sea includes increased land coverage and fire power density.
Missile technology is only a part of the evolu-tion; the ability to locate, identify and provide near real-time target information to these precision weapons is the additional ingredient that makes the strike missile highly effective. This technology also supports the TBMD arena. National sensors that provide cueing, along with the ability of naval forces to position their platforms strategically to obtain long engagement envelopes, ensure the evolving missile technology's key role in defending land forces or national borders against the tactical ballistic missile (TBM) threat. A ship's ability to carry large missiles in great numbers to meet several different requirements is unique. The US Navy's devel-opment of a lower-tier (atmosphere engage-ments) standard missile-2 (SM-2) BLK IVA and upper-tier (exo-atmospheric engagements) SM-2 lethal exo-atmospheric projectile (LEAP) allows the long engagement windows required to defeat high-density TBMD raids.
| Launch of a standard missile-2 |
Evolving missile technology is a dual-edged sword that provides increased capabilities for land, sea and air forces. In addition, in carry-ing out TBMD and strike missions effectively, US Navy forces must operate within fixed areas close to land for extended periods of time thereby giving up some of their natural advantage of mobility and unpredictability. This happens at the same time as similar tech-nology is emerging that produces timely tar-geting information. In addition, there is no threat that has grown in capability, expanded around the globe, and seen more use than the anti-ship cruise missile (ASCM).
There is an abundance of information in the media identifying the ASCM evolution. This evolution continues to move at a fast pace and many nations are now developing new or enhanced ASCMs. Many missile technology areas are being applied to the modern ASCM, such as supersonic velocities, manoeuvre, low signatures and flight altitudes; self-screening jamming; multiple-launch platforms; increased ranges; raid densities and multi-spectrum guidance. The Russian design bureaux continue their innovative and prodigious development of more capable ASCMs.
First displayed in 1993, the Novator Alpha multi-range weapon system is capable of long range and supersonic velocities. Both accomplished with a subsonic bus carrying a large supersonic missile that is detached and con-tinues to its target at speeds above mach 3. In addition, the Mashinostroenia, Raduga and Zvezda-Strela design bureaux have supersonic ACMs deployed and in various stages of devel-opment including a design that utilises a turbojet, ramjet or rocket.
Other ASCMs include a joint German and French supersonic programme, as well as a Chinese programme and, from the Indians, the Koral programme, a version of the Russian Sunburn (SN-N-22). One thing is clear, the supersonic ASCM will continue to evolve (Yakhont, Bastion and Alpha) and its deploy-ment will expand.
Multi-mode seeker technology is being devel-oped and deployed in all mission areas. The US Navy is adding infrared (IR) seekers to its standard and sparrow missiles while deploying rolling airframe missile (RAM), a passive RF and IR dual-mode missile. These enhance-ments are required to obtain end-game accu-racy and to defeat countermeasures. At the same time, Taiwan has been developing the Hsiung Feng 2 with dual-mode active radar and infrared terminal seekers. Multi-mode missiles have many advantages and one of the most dramatic is their ability to defeat all types of existing countermeasure. With the advent of focal-plane array technology, where it is possible to obtain a picture of the target, effective active IR and RF countermeasures will become more difficult to achieve. Another benefit is aim-point selection that can increase the effectiveness of any system dramatically.
Missiles being deployed today also have much greater range both in the ballistic and cruise- missile arenas. The new versions of the US Navy SM developed at the end of the cold war have now been put to use in the TBMD role. The new versions of the Russian ASCMs also employ increased range from either a dual-propulsion concept, throttable ramjet or new turbojet technology. An increase in range goes hand-in-hand with new means of navigation using global-satellite positioning systems to reduce fire control and mission planning requirements. These same space systems and the improved means of providing information to launch platforms, give increased uses for new long-range missiles.
Missiles exist within a larger system of sensors and direction systems. The US Navy co-opera-tive engagement capability and associated mountain top effort have demonstrated an increase in battle space and sustainability available to the battle group commander. It now seems possible to send naval missiles great distances over the horizon and well into the land battle space to intercept targets not being tracked by the launching platform's sen-sors. This effort also should provide increased capability against the low-signature threat. Inherent in this is the after-launch ability to lock onto its target having been directed to a point in space using external information. The addition of global-positioning information also will allow the same SM airframe to be used for long-range strikes. This continues to validate the US Navy strategy of saving critical invest-ment dollars by evolving and modifying a single family of missiles to take advantage of existing range and platform capability and so reduce life-cycle costs of these large weapons.
In addition, a highly effective system is required to defend against the modern smart missile. One could make the case that the demands on a modern combat system are at an all-time high given the numbers and capa-bilities of threat ASCMs that could be sent against a surface unit. Given that the modern missile is capable of being launched towards a target, finding that target without further sup-port and doing so across more than one spec-trum, a combat system must be capable of taking advantage of these new missiles.
First the combat system must be multi-spec-trum. The basic premise in effective defence is a set of potent layers. The modern ASCM has begun to strip away the traditional concept of layered defence built on battle space. When a threat could be tracked 100NM or more, there was an opportunity for several engage-ments. The ASCM flying below the horizon has taken this battle space away until CEC or something similar is fully deployed. Even then this concept depends on external platforms and sensors that may not be in place because the enemy determines when and where to strike. Effective defence must have layers of sensors, weapons and countermeasures if it is to ensure success against a determined enemy. Given an ASCM's ability to fly below the radar horizon with a very small signature and travel at great speeds, battle space cannot be depended upon to provide engagement opportunities. The most critical issue is to know there is a threat and develop a track to begin the engagement as early as possible. This cannot be accomplished with high confi-dence operating in one spectrum only. Modern surface combat systems around the world are deploying IR search and track and electronic surveillance measures (ESM). These deployments have led to the evolution of a distributed combat system in almost all navies that rely on several sensors to provide infor-mation to a variety of weapons and decoys. The French Navy is initiating sea trials on an enhanced self-defence combat system. In this case, the French Navy is going a step further by establishing 'king of self defence' including a skylight where the commander is located.
The US Navy has initiated and is about to enter testing with its ship self-defence system (SSDS) sometimes referred to as a quick reac-tion combat capability (QRCC). In addition to receiving a high priority from the US Navy, the US Congress regularly has shown its support with increased funding over the past few years. SSDS is based on a local area network that fuses sensor data from various radars, IRST and ESM to provide high-quality tracks and, most importantly, to reduce the time-lines and human delays for initiating engage-ments. Key to this concept is the use of exist-ing sensors and weapons systems to provide an affordable modernisation path for the US Navy's many ships.
Radar has formed the backbone of all modern ship defence since the Second World War and this will not change although radar is under-going significant change. The active-phased array radar (APAR) is the most advanced and the result of a joint effort by The Netherlands, Canada and Germany. Meanwhile France, Italy and the UK are working to define an active array radar to support their joint horizon project. This radar technology is required to reduce timelines and provide a high number of engagements to defeat increasing raid den-sities that can be generated by the ASCM. Interestingly, the horizon project will rely on the ASTER missile family that uses an active missile radar and receives high-data rate tar-get updates from the combat system. Even this system has a requirement for an inner layer missile defence recognising the raid density problem. The APAR project will use the SM weapon with the active array providing fire control information and providing illumination only at the end game. In addi-tion, separate illuminators can be added depending on requirements. The Netherlands and Germany again have added additional layers of missile defence with the evolved seasparrow missile (ESSM), RAM or goal-keeper. These projects also will include a modern disturbed combat system and multi-spectrum sensor. Interestingly, the German Navy plans to deploy the multi-spectrum RAM to take advantage of an ESM or IR-only track. It is possible that Germany might attempt to procure the SM-2 BLK IIIB or IVA variant that will be multi-spectrum.
Another interesting development in this area of sensors and weapons is the addition of an electrical optical (EO) system to the US Navy's phalanx close-in weapons system (CIWS). Initiated as an answer to small-boat defence and highlighted by the fleet during Persian Gulf operations, the EO track information also is being used to improve the radar track against small targets in multi-path. The phalanx radar is being fused into the US SSDS system to pro-vide increased track quality and probability of establishing a track. Similarly, the Dutch have integrated the goalkeeper CIWS with their IRST to operate in a passive mode, but also engage their radar tracker to reduce false target probability and complete a CIWS engage-ment. The netting of existing sensors to take the best features of each to improve platform survivability is recognised as an essential capability for effective ASMC defence.
What about the distant future? Will missiles always drive the equation? History tells us most likely not. There are emerging technologies in the area of energy weapons. The US and Israeli governments will use existing laser technology in a fixed land site to defeat terrorist rocket attacks. While this existing technology is not applicable to ships because of size and power requirements, future variants of laser technology should be available. British, Dutch and US industry have made joint initiatives to invest in a small, lightweight laser using 1.06 micron technology. Like all new concepts, it will have a long gestation period. There is continued interest in other forms of energy weapons including high-powered microwave, that may provide new and more effective kill mechanisms than existing warheads. This technology may be deployed on existing missile systems. It appears that missile technology will continue to be the operational driver for decades to come.
| Advanced seekers such as the rolling airframe missile (RAM) are key to the success of 21st century weapon systems |
The evolution of worldwide digitised battle-fields will make it easier to take advantage of inherent missile capabilities and make them more effective. In the next few decades missiles will be capable of high hyper velocities of 8-12 Mach over great ranges. The Russian technical community has flown test vehicles and the US Air Force is asking for industry concepts for a missile system with this capacity.
The close integration of missile, sensors, combat systems and platforms will continue. Whether offensive or defensive missile systems have the advantage depends on which side is faster at advancing multi-spectrum sensors, computer processing and national sensors integration. As Nathan Bedford Forrest, the famous US civil war general said: "The firstest with the mostest wins."
