The US Navy’s New Surface Warfare Strategy: ‘Distributed Lethality’*

By Franz-Stefan Gady
January 16, 2015

The United States Navy plans to re-organize and re-equip its surface fleet by grouping ships into small surface action groups and increasing the number of anti-ship weapons on more platforms. The U.S. Navy calls this tactical shift “distributed lethality.”

Breaking Defense quotes, Rear Admiral Peter Fanta and his rough summary of the concept of “distributed lethality”: “If it floats, it fights, that’s ‘distributed lethality’ (…) Make every cruiser, destroyer, amphib, LCS, a thorn in somebody else’s side.” Fanta, the director for Surface Warfare on the Navy staff, spoke at the annual Surface Navy Association National Symposium, which took place in Arlington, Virginia this week.

Vice Admiral Thomas Rowden, commander of Naval Surface Forces, further elaborated on the tactical shift at the symposium, as military.com reports: “We’re going to up-gun as many existing platforms as we can to achieve more total lethality.” Speakers at the symposium noted that the Navy will overhaul ships in service with low-cost weapon and sensor upgrades including Aegis destroyers, cruisers, supply ships, and littoral combat ships. However, more details on the specifics of this reshuffle will only emerge when the president’s 2016 budget request comes out next month.

In 2014, the U.S. Navy had to endure politically motivated budget cuts and a hiring freeze delaying retrofits and maintenance of Navy vessels. This trend will likely continue in 2015. “Budget is coming down,” Fanta emphasized. This should be placed in perspective: In 2014, the U.S. Navy deployed tonnage equal to that of the sixteen next-largest navies combined.

The tactical “distributed lethality” shift is largely due to the increasing anti-access/area denial capabilities of the armed forces of China and Iran but also Russia. In an article in Proceedings Magazine, published by the U.S. Naval Institute, Vice Admiral Rowden, Rear Admiral Fanta, and Rear Admiral Peter Gumataotao, outlined the reasons behind the re-organization of the surface fleet by arguing that, “the shift to the offensive responds to the development of increasingly capable A2/AD weapons and sensors designed specifically to deny U.S. naval forces the freedom of maneuver necessary to project power.(…) Adversaries who counter this advantage diminish the deterrent value of forward-deployed forces and negatively impact the assurances we provide to friends and allies. A shift to the offensive is necessary to ‘spread the playing field,’ providing a more complex targeting problem while creating more favorable conditions to project power where required.”

As of now, the U.S. Navy still lacks an adequate long-range, anti-surface weapon to implement a re-organization of the surface fleet based on the “distributed lethality” idea. One possible future acquisition could be the Norwegian Kongsberg Naval Strike Missile, yet no decisions on the procurement of new weapon systems has been made as of now. The authors of the Proceeding Magazine article also outline additional requirements for their vision, such as improved intelligence/surveillance/reconnaissance and data relay, low-cost medium range strike weapons, and new railguns.

This new tactical reorganization is a clear indication that the days when the U.S. Navy’s surface fleet just served as air defense elements for carrier strike groups, floating bastions for ballistic missile defense, and strike platforms for land attacks are over. It remains to be seen how the Chinese and Russian navies will respond to the shift.

* Article publicat a The Diplomat. Recomanem la lectura d'aquest article, i dels seus enllaços, doncs la US Navy fa temps que necessita redistrubuïr la seva potència de foc. Per descomptat, cal alliberar destructors i creurers de les tasques de "pantalla" als CSG, però es l'exessiva concentració de la potència de foc en un determinat tipus de naus, genera vulnerabilitats.

SEIZING THE ASUW INITIATIVE WITH LAND BASED PATROL AIRCRAFT*

By Michael Glynn

Recent months have found uniformed officers and naval strategists writing and speaking about regaining the ability of U.S. Navy (USN) ships to conduct offensive anti-surface warfare (ASuW). The discussion has been lively and featured many authors and many different approaches. Some solutions are incremental, such as fielding more capable long-range weapons in existing launch systems.[i] Others are more radical, such as trading large long-range missile defense interceptors for small point defense missiles and building a new generation of multi-role cruise missiles.[ii]

Missing from the discussion of future acquisitions and new weapons is how the USN can leverage existing land-based airpower to seize the offensive in ASuW. The P-8 Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft is deployed today, with the range, persistence, sensors, and network architecture to serve as a self-contained “kill chain.” It is able to disperse and operate in an expeditionary environment during peacetime or contingency operations. If equipped with more suitable long-range anti-ship weapons, this aircraft will provide greatly increased capability for the combatant commander. This will allow more flexibility for USN forces to operate in an A2/AD environment when a carrier is not nearby or in the interim until more capable surface-based ASuW weapons are fielded.

Framing the Challenge

During the last three decades, the USN has divested its surface forces of offensive anti-ship firepower as operations shifted to littoral environments with permissive threat profiles. With the retirement of the Tomahawk Anti-Ship Missile, the service has been left without a weapon that can engage targets at a range beyond that of threat anti-ship cruise missiles (ASCM’s).[iii] Our ships now go to sea armed only with the sub-sonic, medium range Harpoon missile. The removal of Harpoon from Flight IIA DDG-51’s after DDG-79 and proposed cuts to funding for cruisers have exacerbated this glaring deficiency.[iv] The onus for conducting maritime strike has shifted from our surface ships to the aircraft of the Carrier Strike Group (CSG).

As the reach and number of U.S. ASCM’s have decreased, threat systems have proliferated and improved in range, speed and sophistication. China, Russia, and India all possess advanced supersonic long-range ASCM’s. Foreign militaries are equipping themselves not only with the weapons needed to strike, but also the C4ISR capabilities needed to detect and accurately target adversary forces.[v]

Commanders, legislators, and the defense industry have responded with a variety of initiatives, including the development of an Offensive Anti-Surface Weapon (OASuW.) This program is aimed at fielding an advanced cruise missile with sufficient range to allow USN ships to employ outside the reach of threat weapons systems. OASuW Increment 1 will begin fielding the Lockheed Martin Long Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM) in FY17 for carriage on the F/A-18 Super Hornet and USAF B-1 bombers. OASuW Increment 2 will provide for integration of a long-range anti-surface capability onboard surface ships.[vi] By equipping the F/A-18 and B-1 with the ability to carry LRASM, the Department of Defense has signaled that regardless of eventual integration of OASuW onboard surface ships, carrier and land-based airpower will remain a key component of the U.S. anti-surface strategy.

Missing from this conversation on OASuW capabilities is the USN’s Maritime Patrol and Reconnaissance (MPR) force. The MPR community is recapitalizing with the P-8 Poseidon aircraft. The sensors, datalink capabilities, and expeditionary nature of this aircraft make it a natural choice to augment the lack of anti-surface punch. The P-8 and RQ-4C UAS are envisioned to play targeting roles in long-range ASuW engagements, so arming P-8 with upgraded weapons is a logical next step. The Poseidon can allow the fleet to seize the initiative in anti-surface employment, especially in situations where the threat makes the reality of deploying the CSG forward politically unpalatable or disadvantageous.

The Solution

The P-8 Poseidon is derived from the Boeing 737 aircraft. It features long-range, high transit speed, solid persistence, and will soon incorporate the ability to perform air-to-air refueling. The open architecture mission systems are easily reconfigurable and allow for rapid improvement of sensor and weapon capabilities. The P-8 features a Mobile Tactical Operations Center (MTOC), which aids in processing data collected during and after mission flights. The MTOC is fully expeditionary, allowing an MPR detachment to quickly relocate in peacetime or disperse away from main operating airfields and continue to fight in wartime.

The ability to disperse is especially critical in an A2/AD environment. The proliferation of theater ballistic missiles (TBM’s) and cruise missiles has allowed previously weak nations to hold an opponent’s forward bases at risk. By deploying aircraft to auxiliary fields away from large military installations, adversary commanders are faced with a much more challenging targeting problem. The increased cost of building more TBM’s may be daunting to a particular military, and the uncertainty of being able to destroy forward forces is a stabilizing influence. P-8’s ability to deploy to medium sized airfields and sustain itself during combat operations is a force multiplier.

P-8 will also carry the Raytheon Advanced Aerial Sensor (AAS) to provide standoff detection and targeting of maritime and land targets. Descended from the highly-classified APS-149 Littoral Surveillance Radar System, AAS will provide Poseidon crews with the ability to detect, classify, and provide targeting solutions of threats even in highly congested littoral areas.[vii] In A2/AD environments with highly advanced surface to air missile systems, this ability to accurately detect threats from long-range and provide targeting updates to net-enabled weapons isn’t just beneficial, it’s critical.[viii]A MPR squadron equipped with AAS and appropriate weapons becomes its own self-contained targeting and strike force.

In short, P-8 offers a weapons platform that is uniquely suited to maritime strikes. Its crews are far more familiar with operating in the ASuW role than USAF bomber crews and culturally more pre-disposed to emphasize this mission set. The ability to act as an armed sensor platform allows the Poseidon to close the kill-chain itself. P-8 armed with suitable standoff weapons has the ability to detect and attrite adversary surface ships, preserving the ability for our surface forces to deploy forward in wartime, and decreasing the need for our carriers to surge forward into extremely high-risk areas to eliminate surface threats with the air wing. This provides increased flexibility to the combatant commander.

Needed Changes

The MPR force has the potential to act as a powerful ASuW strike force, however this capability can grow stronger with upgrades and training. P-8 should be equipped with an OASuW capability, ideally allowing it to carry the LRASM rounds that will enter production in FY17. The largest roadblock will not be carriage capability or weapons system engineering, rather finding the funding to provide integration and testing for this weapon onboard P-8.

The P-8 currently carries the Harpoon Block IC, which is insufficient for high-end ASuW. The Block IC is not net-enabled, meaning it cannot receive in-flight updates from targeting platforms via a datalink. This makes the weapon less flexible and precise in congested environments. The aircraft is slated to receive the Harpoon Block II, which is net-enabled, but is still constrained by its short range.[ix] This lack of reach prevents it from engaging high-end air defense warships without putting the P-8 and its crew at serious risk.

It is best to utilize the synergy that exists in MPR squadrons and equip these aircraft with both the sensors and the weapons required for standoff targeting and strike. Since AAS equipped P-8’s may be required to provide targeting support to OASuW in a complex surface environment, equipping the targeting aircraft with weapons is the logical next step to close the kill chain. Once P-8 is equipped with LRASM, crews must be required to train frequently with AAS equipped targeting aircraft and LRASM equipped shooter aircraft against representative threat pictures. Maritime targeting is a very dynamic and challenging game, and requires practice to execute properly.[x]

Summary

Equipping the MPR force with a long-range strike capability will capitalize on existing sensors, platforms, and aircrew skills. The ability to call on an existing force structure with incremental upgrades provides a solution to a glaring deficiency in the Navy’s ASuW capabilities. The ability to task highly mobile aircraft rather than SSN’s or carriers to provide ASuW firepower provides a commander with increased options and flexibility. This can reduce risk while raising the enemy’s uncertainty about U.S. operational intentions.

American patrol crews gained fame during World War II for their nighttime raids on Japanese shipping. Operating alone and independent of the carrier they provided a critical force to weaken enemy logistics capability and to disrupt sea lines of control. It is fitting that almost three quarters of a century later we consider the role of our current MPR force. The P-8 can add to our ASuW capability if we make the decision now to properly equip it and provide training to aircrews.

Lieutenant Michael Glynn is an active-duty naval aviator and graduate of the University of Pennsylvania. He most recently served as a P-8 instructor pilot and mission commander with Patrol Squadron (VP) 16. He currently serves as an instructor flying the T-45 with the ‘Fighting Redhawks’ of Training Squadron (VT) 21. The views expressed in this article are entirely his own.

[i] Robert Crumplar and Peter Morrison, “Beware the Anti-Ship Cruise Missile,” U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings, vol. 140, no. 1 (January 2014), http://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/2014-01/beware-antiship-cruise-missile.

[ii] Bryan Clark, Commanding the Seas: A Plan to Reinvigorate U.S. Navy Surface Warfare, (Washington, D.C.: Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, 2014), http://www.csbaonline.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/A-Plan-To-Reinvigorate-US-Navy-Surface-Warfare.pdf.

[iii] Charlie Williams, “Increasing Lethality in Anti-Surface Warfare (ASuW),” Center for International Maritime Security, May 31, 2014,http://cimsec.org/increasing-lethality-anti-surface-warfare-asuw-minor-less-minor-course-corrections/11478.

[iv] “LRASM Missiles: Reaching for a Long-Range Punch,” Defense Industry Daily, October 15, 2014, http://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/lrasm-missiles-reaching-for-a-long-reach-punch-06752/.

[v] Congressional Research Service, China Naval Modernization: Implications for U.S. Navy Capabilities – Background and Issues for Congress, by Ronald O’Rourke, (Washington, D.C., 2014), 34.

[vi] LRASM Missiles, Defense Industry Daily.

[vii] Bill Sweetman, “Navy Moves Forward On Advanced Airborne Radar,” Aviation Week, June 18, 2012, http://aviationweek.com/awin/navy-moves-forward-advanced-airborne-radar.

[viii] Bill Sweetman, Christina Mackenzie, and Andy Nativi, “Net Enabled Weapons Drive Sea Warfare Change,” Aviation Week & Space Technology, September 3, 2012, http://aviationweek.com/awin/net-enabled-weapons-drive-sea-warfare-change.

[ix] Richard R. Burgess, “A ‘Year of Transition’ for the P-8A Poseidon,”Seapower, April 9, 2013, http://seapowermagazine.org/sas/stories/20130409-p-8a.html.

[x] Maksim Y. Tokarev, “Kamikazes: The Soviet Legacy,” Naval War College Review, vol. 67, no. 1, (Winter 2014), 61-84. It should be noted that Soviet Tu-95RT “Bear-D” reconnaissance and targeting aircraft were equipped with Uspekh-1 “Big Bulge” maritime search and targeting radar. This system did not feature Inverse Synthetic Aperture Radar (ISAR) capabilities for standoff imaging and identification. The P-8 AAS system and APY-10 search radar both feature ISAR capabilities, simplifying long-range identification challenges. Modern employment scenarios would find ISR aircraft much better able to identify a contact once it had been located and would not be as chaotic as the Soviet experience that Tokarev describes. Maritime targeting still remains an arena that is inherently dynamic and therefore requires proper training to execute reliably and efficiently.

* Article publicat al CIMSEC. Recomanem una lectura reflexiva d'aquest article per la importància que poden tenir els P-8 en la funció ASuW. En un moment en que la major part dels destructors i creuers de la Navy estan lligats a tasques de protecció d'unitats d'alt valor estratègic, els P-8 podrien complementar el buit que queda en operacions contra unitats de superfície. No obstant, mentre se'n analitzin les possibilitats i s'incorporin a l'entrenament i a la doctrina de la US Navy, no podem esperar que aquesta tecnologia per si sola sigui una veritable solució.

PLA's new Type 1130 CIWS can intercept Mach 4 missiles*

Russian media has reported that China's latest indigenous Type 1130 close-in weapon system can fire 10,000 rounds per minute and destroy 90% of hypersonic missiles traveling at a speed four times the speed of sound, reports our Chinese-language sister paper Want Daily.

The system, which is the third-generation of the close-in weapon system developed by China, was recently spotted being installed on a PLA Type 054A frigate.

Compared to its seven-barreled Type 730 predecessor, the Type 1130's Gatling-type gun has the same 30 mm caliber but the number of barrels increased to 11. While the Type 730 has only one magazine which contains 250 rounds, the latest gun carries two magazines each containing 640 rounds. The design allows the gun to fire over 10,000 rounds per minute and raise its hit rate against missiles traveling at Mach 4 to 90%, according to the Russian media outlet cited.

Though the mammoth rotary cannon has been placed on a Type 054A frigate that only has around a 4,000-ton displacement, the Russian media claimed the system should be deployed on ships with a displacement over 12,000 tons due to its size and weight as well as the amount of electricity it consumes.

The system has been installed on both sides of China's first aircraft carrier, the Liaoning. The Russian media predicted that the system will be deployed on the country's latest guided missile destroyer, the Type 055, in the future.

The Type 1103 will not completely replace the Type 730. Destroyers such as the Types 052, 052B, 052C, 052D and 051C will continue using the latter.

* Notícia publicada a Want China Times. La millora dels sistemes de defensa de punt és quelcom imprescindible. Amb la proliferació de míssils súper o hipersònics, el temps és clau, i no convé refiar-se dels SAM per la destrucció dels ASCM a llarga distància. De fet, no cal que siguin molt ràpids per provocar sorpreses desagradables si passen inadvertits al radar. D'aquí la importància de solucions d'últim recurs.

Navy Successfully Tests Norwegian Missile from LCS 4*

WASHINGTON (NNS) -- The U.S. Navy successfully performed a live-fire demonstration of a Kongsberg Naval Strike Missile (NSM) from USS Coronado (LCS 4) Sept. 23, scoring a direct hit on its intended target, a Mobile Ship Target (MST).

Program Executive Office Integrated Warfare Systems (PEO IWS), together with Program Executive Office Littoral Combat Ships (PEO LCS), coordinated the demonstration for purposes of testing the capabilities of the Norwegian-made missile from a ship.

"We are pleased with the results of this surface warfare capability demonstration," said Rear Adm. Jon Hill, program executive officer, Integrated Warfare Systems. "This event was a well-coordinated effort between the Navy and industry, and I'm proud of the teamwork that made this test a success."

Rear Adm. Brian Antonio, program executive officer Littoral Combat Ships said, "This demonstration provided us with a tremendous opportunity to see the capabilities of both the ship and the missile, and what we saw today has great potential for LCS and other fleet assets."

The Kongsberg NSM is a long-range precision strike missile designed to be launched from a variety of ships against a variety of targets. It is currently used on Norwegian Nansen-class frigates and Skjold Class missile torpedo boats, and the Polish Coastal Missile Division. Kongsberg has previously contracted with the U.S. Navy to supply simulation training tools for Navigation, Seamanship, and Shiphandling Training (NSST) programs.

PEO IWS is affiliated with the Naval Sea Systems Command. The PEO IWS organization is responsible for developing, delivering and sustaining surface ship and submarine combat systems, and for implementing Navy enterprise solutions across numerous ship types.

PEO LCS is affiliated with the Naval Sea Systems Command and provides a single program executive responsible for acquiring and sustaining mission capabilities of the littoral combat ship class, from procurement through fleet employment and sustainment. Delivering high-quality warfighting assets while balancing affordability and capability is key to supporting the nation's maritime strategy.

* Notícia publicada al web de la US Navy. Compartim aquesta notícia per complementar la que us vam anunciar fa pocs dies. 

Navy to Conduct Strike Missile Demonstration Aboard LCS 4*

WASHINGTON — The Navy is scheduled to conduct a live-fire demonstration of a Kongsberg-built Naval Strike Missile (NSM) aboard the littoral combat ship USS Coronado (LCS 4) while underway in the Pacific Ocean Sept. 24, a Naval Sea Systems Command spokesman announced in a Sept. 18 release.

The Kongsberg NSM is a long-range precision-strike missile designed to be launched from a variety of ships against a variety of targets. This demonstration is intended to test the capabilities of the Norwegian-made missile from a sea-based platform against a Mobile Ship Target (MST) and provide insights into the weapon’s stated capabilities of increased range and lethality. The Navy does not currently have any acquisition or integration requirements for the NSM aboard any of its ships.

“We saw what the missile could do from a Norwegian ship during RIMPAC [Rim of the Pacific exercise], and now have the opportunity to see it perform from one of our ships,” said RDML Jon Hill, program executive officer, Integrated Warfare Systems. “We’re excited to see what potential the missile has as a possible future warfighting tool for the U.S. Navy.”

The planned live firing demonstration of the NSM will take place under the Foreign Comparative Testing (FCT) program and will act as a demonstration of the ship’s potential to execute an increased anti-surface warfare role. The FCT program is designed to test items and technologies of foreign allies that have a high Technology Readiness Level in order to satisfy valid defense requirements quickly and economically.

The NSM currently is used on Norwegian Nansen Class frigates and Skjold-class missile torpedo boats, and in the Polish Coastal Missile Division. Kongsberg has previously contracted with the U.S. Navy to supply simulation training tools for Navigation, Seamanship, and Shiphandling Training (NSST) programs.

Program Executive Office Integrated Warfare Systems, together with Program Executive Office Littoral Combat Ships, will coordinate the demonstration. In the event of inclement weather or an unfavorable sea state, the demonstration will be conducted Sept. 25.

* Notícia publicada a Sea Power. No és cap novetat que la indústria de defensa Noruega fabrica míssils de gran qualitat, i tampoc és el primer cop que la US Navy s'hi fixat. Les properes proves podrien ser un pas per substituïr els veterans Harpoon

Report: Israeli submarine strike hit Syrian arms depot*

Israeli Dolphin-class submarines carried out a July 5 attack on an arms depot in the Syrian port city of Latakia
, according to a report in the British Sunday Times, which contradicted a previous CNN report that the attack was the work of the Israel Air Force.

The alleged Israeli naval strike was closely coordinated with the United States and targeted a contingent of 50 Russian-made Yakhont P-800 anti-ship missiles that had arrived earlier in the year for Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime, the Times cited Middle East intelligence sources as stating.

According to the report, the Israeli fleet of German-built submarines launched a cruise missile at the weapons cache after which Syrian rebels reportedly attested to hearing early-morning explosions at a Syrian port-side naval barracks.
On Friday, anonymous US officials told CNN that Israel had carried out an air strike on the Syrian city.

Three unnamed US officials told CNN the IAF had targeted Russian-made Yakhont anti-ship missiles that could pose a threat to Israel.
Qassem Saadeddine, spokesman for the Free Syrian Army’s Supreme Military Council, said the pre-dawn attack hit Syrian Navy barracks at Safira, near the port of Latakia. The rebel forces’ intelligence network had identified newly supplied Yakhont missiles being stored there, he said.

“It was not the FSA that targeted this,” Saadeddine told Reuters. “It is not an attack that was carried out by rebels. This attack was either by air raid or long-range missiles fired from boats in the Mediterranean.”

A loud explosion was heard near Latakia on Wednesday, an opposition monitoring group said, but the cause of the blast was unclear.

Explosions in Latakia, part of Assad's stronghold on the Mediterranean coast, have been extremely rare during Syria's two-year-old conflict.

Reuters and Ben Hartman contributed to this report.

* Notícia publicada al Jerusalem Post. Els temuts míssils P-800, que Rússia va vendre a Síria i dels que ja us n'havíem parlat, semblen haver estat eliminats en un atac de Marina d'Israel.

Russia to scrap the last Soviet-era nuclears sub by 2014*

MOSCOW, April 2 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's Nerpa shipyard is to scrap the last Soviet-era nuclear submarine to be withdrawn from the Russian Fleet by 2014, the yard said on Tuesday.
The Project 949A (NATO: Oscar II class) cruise-missile submarine Krasnodar was launched in 1985 and retired from the Russian Navy in 2012, according to rusnavy.com.
The boat will be the last submarine to be dismantled at the shipyard, Nerpa press secretary Irina Anzulatova said.
“Work is currently underway to remove spent nuclear fuel from it,” she said.
According to Russia’s state nuclear corporation Rosatom, a total of 199 nuclear submarines have been decommissioned from the Navy since the late 1980's, including 120 in northwestern Russia and 79 in Russia’s Far East.
Russia has three nuclear submarine disposal enterprises: Zvyozdochka in Severodvinsk (Arkhangelsk region), Nerpa in Snezhnogorsk (Murmansk region) and Zvezda in Bolshoi Kamen (Far East).
Nerpa has dismantled over 50 submarines since 1998. Zvyozdochka completed its submarine dismantling program in 2011. Zvezda currently has no submarine dismantlement contracts, a company representative told RIA Novosti.
Rosatom has confirmed that information to RIA Novosti.

© RIA Novosti.
History of the Russian submarine fleet

 
During the scrapping process, spent nuclear fuel is removed from the submarine's reactors and put into storage, while the hull is cut into three sections, with the bow and stern sections being removed and destroyed. The hull's reactor compartment is sealed and put into storage.

*Notícia publicada a RIA Novosti. Repassant les xifres de l'antiga Marina russa hom veu fins on va arribar la caiguda dels 90. En qualsevol cas les tasques de desballestament i, sobretot, l'emmagatzematge de combustible nuclear són una oportunitat per crear llocs de treball.

China Channels Billy Mitchell: Anti-Ship Ballistic Missile Alters Region’s Military Geography*

By Andrew  S. Erickson

China’s DF-21D anti-ship ballistic missile (ASBM) is no longer merely an aspiration. Beijing has successfully developed, partially tested and deployed in small numbers the world’s first weapons system capable of targeting the last relatively uncontested U.S. airfield in the Asia-Pacific from long-range, land-based mobile launchers. This airfield is a moving aircraft carrier strike group (CSG), which the Second Artillery, China’s strategic missile force, now has the capability to at least attempt to disable with the DF-21D in the event of conflict. With the ASBM having progressed this far, and representing the vanguard of a broad range of potent asymmetric systems, Beijing probably expects to achieve a growing degree of deterrence with it.
None of this should be surprising. Numerous data points have been emerging from Chinese sources as well as official statements and reports from Washington and Taipei for years now, available to anyone willing to connect them. They offer an instructive case study not only to military analysts, but also to anyone conducting analysis under conditions of imperfect information. For instance, relevant Chinese publications multiplied throughout the late 1990s, dipped in a classic “bathtub-shaped” pattern from 2004 to 2006 at a critical point in ASBM development and component testing, and rose sharply thereafter as China headed towards initial deployment beginning in 2010. China is always more transparent in Chinese, and analysts must act accordingly.
*The Ghost of Billy Mitchell*
What is perhaps most surprising is the foreign skepticism and denial that has accompanied China’s ASBM. Again, however, this sort of disbelief is nothing new. At the close of World War II, the following editorial appeared: “The ghost of Billy Mitchell should haunt those who crucified him a few years back when he so openly declared that no nation could win the next war without air superiority and advocated that the U.S. move at once to build a strong air force. Billy Mitchell was merely far ahead of his time and it is regrettable that he didn’t live to see his prophecy come true” ("Prescott Evening Courier", May 7, 1945). Mitchell’s legacy stems from his willingness to push for such revolutionary approaches as the July 21, 1921 test-bombing of captured German battleship "Ostfriesland", even at the cost of his career.
Consider the reported reaction of then-Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels to Mitchell’s proposal: “Good God! This man should be writing dime novels! … That idea is so damned nonsensical and impossible that I’m willing to stand on the bridge of a battleship while that nit-wit tries to hit if from the air!” Needless to say, Daniels was nowhere near "Ostfriesland" when army aircraft sunk it with two bombs ("New York Times", July 22, 1921) [1].
The test’s efficacy was hotly contested by the U.S. Navy and remains debated to this day. Theodore Roosevelt, then-Assistant Secretary of the Navy, was decidedly unimpressed:  “I once saw a man kill a lion with a 30-30 caliber rifle under certain conditions, but that doesn’t mean that a 30-30 rifle is a lion gun” [2]. Yet the fact of a hit, however manipulated and revealed, changed the strategic equation. It altered service budgets immediately and helped catalyze development of what later became the U.S. Air Force.
The future is difficult to predict. While it is certainly hubristic to insist that it "will" unfold in a certain way, it is equally hubristic to insist that it "will not".
*No Need for a “Lion Gun”*
As with anti-carrier aviation, physics allows for an ASBM, and is the same for China’s burgeoning defense industry as for any of its foreign counterparts. Like the Martin bombers that assaulted"Ostfriesland "with their 2,000 pound bombs, the DF-21D is not a novel idea or technology, but rather an architectural innovation, or ‘Frankenweapon,’ involving a novel assembly of existing systems to yield a new use with unprecedented maneuverability and accuracy. The United States and Russia could have developed an ASBM before China, but are proscribed from doing so by the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty they ratified in 1988. Still, military capabilities are determined by effectiveness with respect to objectives, not technological sophistication for its own sake. To paraphrase Secretary Roosevelt, you do not need to invent a “Lion Gun” if a 30-30 rifle can be rigged to do the job. China frequently pursues an “80 percent solution” that may be just good enough to further, or even realize, many of its objectives. In light of sequestration, this approach should inform Pentagon deliberations surrounding prioritization and efficiency.
*No Need for a Chinese Mitchell*
China may never have had its own Mitchell, but it did not need one. Chinese prioritization of ballistic missile development dates to the 1950s, creating both strengths and institutional interests. Nobody risked court martial for suggesting that carriers could be attacked in a new way. Rather, following the 1995–96 Taiwan Strait crises and 1999 Belgrade embassy bombing, China’s top leaders—starting with Jiang Zemin—ordered and funded megaprojects to achieve precisely such effects.
ASBM development fits perfectly into Beijing’s far broader effort to further still-contested island and maritime claims in the Near Seas (Yellow, South China and East China Seas). The DF-21D epitomizes Sun Zi’s universally-relevant injunction: “In war, the way is to avoid what is strong, and strike at what is weak.” Together with China’s other ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, submarines and electromagnetic weapons, it targets specific physics-based limitations in U.S., allied and friendly military forces to increase the risk to them of intervening in crises on China’s periphery. Even among these other potent systems, however, the ASBM is distinguished by its ability to be fired from mobile, highly-concealable platforms toward moving targets hundreds of kilometers from China’s shores.
*No Longer a “Dime Novel”*
On March 16, 2011, Taiwan National Security Bureau Director-General Tsai De-sheng restated a previous claim from August 2010 that the PLA already had tested and was deploying the DF-21D (“Taiwan’s Intelligence Chief Warns about the PLA’s Growing Strategic Weapon Systems,” "China Brief", March 25, 2011). The 2011 ROC National Defense Report confirmed that “a small quantity of” DF-21D ASBMs “were produced and deployed in 2010” [3]. In December 2010, then-Commander of U.S. Pacific Command Admiral Robert Willard asserted “The anti-ship ballistic missile system in China has undergone extensive testing. An analogy using a Western term would be ‘Initial Operational Capability (IOC),’ whereby it has—I think China would perceive that it has—an operational capability now, but they continue to develop it. It will continue to undergo testing, I would imagine, for several more years” ("Asahi Shimbun", December 28, 2010).
As for supporting infrastructure, on January 3, 2011, Vice Admiral David Dorsett stated that the PLA “likely has the space-based intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR), command and control structure, and ground processing capabilities necessary to support DF-21D employment...[and also] employs an array of non-space based sensors and surveillance assets capable of providing the targeting information” (Bloomberg, January 3, 2011). Two days later, Dorsett added “The Chinese have tested the DF-21D missile system over land a sufficient number of times that the missile system itself is truly competent and capable. …they have ISR, they have sensors onboard ship that can feed into the targeting aspect of it. So could they start to employ that and field it operationally? Yes, I think so” ("Air Force Magazine", January 5, 2011).
Willard’s carefully-chosen words reflect the difficulty in equating Chinese and U.S. development benchmarks. The U.S. Defense Acquisition University defines IOC as “attained when some units and/or organizations in the force structure scheduled to receive a system (1) have received it and (2) have the ability to employ and maintain it” (dap.dau.mil, April 19, 2005). Essentially, China’s ASBM is not fully operational or necessarily fully tested, but is available to be used in some fashion. In a broadly analogous example, the E-8 Joint STARS aircraft did not achieve IOC until June 1996, when the U.S. Air Force received its first aircraft. According to the official history section on the Air Force’s website, however, two developmental E-8 Joint STARS were employed operationally as early as 1991 in Operation Desert Storm even though the aircraft was still in test and evaluation.
Analysts will be hard-pressed to identify a sharp red line between IOC and full operational capability for China’s ASBM. This is part of a larger analytical challenge in which Chinese “hardware” continues to improve dramatically, but the “software” supporting and connecting it remains uncertain and untested in war. Multiple trials have already validated DF-21D components, but Beijing’s ability to employ it against a moving, uncooperative sea-surface target remains unproven. Such confidence almost certainly requires additional testing. Lack of demonstrated progress in this area may be explained by concern that failure might undermine deterrence accrued thus far while alarming China’s neighbors—yielding “the onus without the bonus.” Limitations in jointness, bureaucratic-technological coordination and integration as well as data fusion—pervasive in the PLA more generally—represent larger challenges.
*Countermeasures…and a Moving Target*
The operational equation is certainly incomplete without considering U.S. countermeasures. In 2011, then-Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Gary Roughead stated, “even though the DF 21 has become a newsworthy weapon, the fact is our aircraft carriers can maneuver, and we have systems that can counter weapons like that” ("Navy Times", March 16, 2011).
Nonetheless, Chinese capabilities also represent a moving target. Beijing will not slow progress to accommodate U.S. sequestration. Backed by an economy that the U.S. National Intelligence Council predicts will surpass U.S. GDP in any major measure by 2030, China is already pursuing an array of weapons programs only equaled by the U.S., and utterly unmatched in dynamism and flexibility of resource allocation.
*Changing East Asia’s Military Geography*
Just as U.S. development of long-range precision strike from aircraft carriers enabled it to win the Pacific War by penetrating Japan’s previously impregnable homeland, Chinese development of long-range precision strike, exemplified by the ASBM, threatens the sanctuary of the aircraft carriers that have long served as well-defended platforms from which to launch strikes on sea and land. By threatening U.S. carriers at a greater distance than their aircraft’s range, this alteration of the ways of war could be every bit as momentous as the one that Mitchell identified.
As China’s ASBM becomes more effective operationally, it may reinforce China’s continentalist approach to defense, “using the land to control the sea.” To further its Near Seas interests, Beijing’s focus on developing a partially shore-based, missile-centric “Anti-Navy”  to deter foreign navies’ intervention is a far more efficient approach than pursuing a blue water navy of its own. Here, China’s institutional predilections serve it well, and permit it to challenge U.S. forces severely, even as it spends far less on its military than does the United States.
China appears to be already seeking to leverage the DF-21D for strategic communications about deterrence and the reliability of U.S. assistance to regional friends and allies. This is part of a larger trend in which a more capable and confident Beijing is becoming increasingly “translucent,” if still not fully transparent, regarding selected capabilities in order to enhance deterrence.
*Don’t Ignore Mitchell Twice*
As Washington flirts with sequestration, its leaders will have to decide quickly how important it is to sustain the Asia-Pacific role that their predecessors expended so much blood and treasure to establish. To maintain this powerful legacy, the U.S. must address such emerging challenges as the political-military effects of a working ASBM with respect to reassuring allies and deterring China.
U.S. advantages undersea—which are already proven in contrast to the advanced aerial vehicles that should also be developed—must be maintained. It would be a grave error to allow numbers or deployments of nuclear attack or guided missile submarines to erode in the Asia-Pacific.
Calibrated transparency about countermeasures is needed to demonstrate that U.S. aircraft carriers can continue to operate successfully in relevant East Asian scenarios. Washington must communicate convincingly with audiences outside the U.S. and Chinese militaries. U.S. taxpayers must be persuaded that investments are needed. Allied citizens must be reassured. Chinese citizens must be disabused of simplistic notions of U.S. weakness. All information should not be hoarded for a conflict that fortunately likely will never come; some should be used to win hearts and minds and prevail in peacetime.
Conversely, failure to maintain and demonstrate adequate countermeasures to asymmetric weapons such as China’s ASBM while pursuing Asia-Pacific rebalancing would create the worst of both worlds, in which China’s leaders feel targeted by rebalancing, but are emboldened by its hollowness.
Billy Mitchell—to whom U.S. leaders owe so much for their influence in the Asia-Pacific today—would turn in his grave if he found that his prophetic vision had been ignored not once, but twice.
Notes:
  1 Emile Gauvreau and Lester Cohen, "Billy Mitchell: Founder of Our Air Force and Prophet without Honor", New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., 1942, pp. 41, 48.
  2 Ibid.
  3 National Defense Report Editing Committee, Ministry of National Defense, "2011 ROC National Defense Report", Taipei: Ministry of National Defense, August 2011, p. 71.

* Article publicat a China Brief. Els treballs i reflexions del professor Andrew S. Erickson són sempre peces imprescindibles. El progrés dels ASBM xinesos, ha de ser seguit sense alarmisme peeò tampoc amb desidia. Pot convertir-se el un "game changer" de primer ordre

SSDS: Quicker Naval Response to Cruise Missiles *

Right now, in many American ships beyond its Navy’s top-tier AEGIS destroyers and cruisers, the detect-to-engage sequence against anti-ship missiles requires a lot of manual steps, involving different ship systems that use different displays. When a Mach 3 missile gives you 45 seconds from appearance on ship’s radar to impact, seconds of delay can be fatal. Seconds of unnecessary delay are unacceptable.

Hence Raytheon’s Ship Self Defense System (SSDS).

• SSDS: Current Versions
• Contracts & Key Events, 2008 – Present [updated]
• Additional Readings

SSDS: Current Versions

SSDS began Operational Evaluation (OPEVAL) in 1997 on USS Ashland [LSD 48], a Whidbey Island Class amphibious assault ship. It will be added as a refit to other vessels, and qualification of the SSDS Mk 2 MOD 1 was completed on the USS Ronald Reagan [CVN 76] carrier in March 2003. Variants of the SSDS system are deployed on a number of CVN-68 Nimitz Class super-carriers, as well as some LSD-41 Whidbey Island Class amphibious assault ships, all LPD-17 San Antonio Class amphibious assault ships (SSDS Mk 2 MOD 2), and some LHD-1 Wasp Class amphibious ships. SSDS will be used across the carrier force, including the newLHA-R escort carriers with secondary amphibious assault roles, and the CVN-78 Gerald R. Ford Class of super-carriers. Finally, components of SSDS have migrated to the future combat systems of the USA’s new Littoral Combat Ships and the 14,500t DDG-1000 Zumwalt Class destroyers.SSDS uses software and commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) electronics to turn incoming data from several systems (radar, radar warning receivers, combat identification, electro-optics) into a single picture of prioritized threats. SSDS will then recommend an engagement sequence for the ship’s crew, or (in automatic mode) fire some combination of jamming transmissions, chaff or decoys, and/or weapons against the oncoming threat. The entire ship’s combat system concept, including the sensors and weapons, is known as Quick Reaction Combat Capability (QRCC) – and SSDS is the key element that ties it all together.

SSDS is currently delivered as the Mk 2 version, which includes Cooperative Engagement Capability (CEC) and tactical data links (Links 4A, 11 and 16) that can gather and fuse data from other ships, aircraft, and helicopters when creating the overall combat picture. The Mk2 set also adds compatibility with the AN/SPQ-9B radar, and the RIM-162 Evolved Sea Sparrow missile. Finally, it meets Category 3 of the U.S. Navy’s Open Architecture Computing Environment (OACE) standard, which uses commercial electronics rather than military-specific hardware in order allow simpler and cheaper upgrades, enhancements, and plug-ins over a ship’s lifetime.

Weapon systems integrated with SSDS currently include the AN/SLQ-32 Electronic Attack System, the NULKA missile decoy system, Mk 15 Phalanx Close-In Weapon System, Rolling Airframe Missile (Block 2 integration in progress), RIM-7 Sea Sparrow Missile System and theRIM-162 Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile.

The US Navy’s May 2009 budget justification looked at future areas for improvement. Mindful of key trends, it aims to cross-reference a wider array of different detection methods. That should improve the odds of finding incoming threats that don’t show up well on radar, and are either flying low, or riding on the surface. The Quick Reaction Combat Capability (QRCC) (2178) project includes SSDS, and Raytheon continues to work on integration of new and improved ship sensors within the system.

Another area for improvement was highlighted by a Pentagon testing report released in October 2010. It said that: “The LPD-17 exhibited difficulty defending itself against several widely proliferated threats, primarily due to… Persistent SSDS Mk 2-based system engineering deficiencies.”

Ouch.

Overall, the Navy wants better coordination of available defensive weapons and decoys. For those ships with an Advanced Combat Direction System (CDS), central system engineering management of SSD developments needs to include integration of SSDS with those capabilities.

Over the longer term, SSDS MK 2 Pre-Planned Product Improvement (P3I) will add conversion kits that will replace electronics within SSDS as they become obsolete. The lifespan of electronics is always much shorter than the life-span of the ships. Managing that difference is where the benefits of open architecture/ commercial approaches really shine, by dramatically reducing the cost and difficulty of fielding compatible upgrades.

Article publicat a Defense Industry Daily. La cooperació en la defensa contra míssils de creuer no és cap tema menor. És cabdal davant la proliferació d'aquest tipus d'armes, especialment quan són adquirides per agents no estatals ( recordem el llançament de míssils anti-buc per part de Hiz-Bollah el 2006).

BrahMos to Test Submarine-Launch Missile by Year-End*

BrahMos, the Russian-Indian supersonic cruise missile joint venture, is to test-fire their anti-ship missile from a submarine platform by year-end, the  Russian partner NPO Mashninostroyenie said Friday.

"We need a test-launch by the end of the year," said the company's Deputy General Director Alexander Dergachev. "A decision will be made on whether the weapon can be accepted for service with the Indian Navy, dependent on the outcome," he added.

The test will be a single demonstration firing from a submerged raft, he said. "When an operational carrier has been chosen, then further trials will continue," he said.

BrahMos, set up in 1998, produces three variants of the BrahMos missile, based on the NPO Mashinostroyenie 3M55 Yakhont (NATO SS-N-26) supersonic cruise missile already in service with Russia's Armed Forces.

The Indian Army has already taken delivery of the land-launched variant. The Navy already has the ship-launched missiles on ten vessels, Dergachev said. The Indian Air Force will also use the weapon, from an upgraded batch of 42 Sukhoi Su-30MKI strike fighters it is expected to order later this year, Russia's Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov said earlier this week in Delhi.

"The missile had a range of 300 kilometers (180 miles), and will be vertically-launched by a gas generator in its launch container, which will eject the weapon by gas pressure, after which it will reach Mach two," he said.

BrahMos can fly as low as 30 feet (10 m) or attack its target from a high angle, combined with supersonic speed and evasive maneuvering. BrahMos can carry a conventional warhead of up to 300 kg (660 lbs).

Earlier this week, Russian daily Izvestia quoted defense industry sources as saying India has uprated its BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles by installing the advanced satellite navigation systems from Russia's Kh-555 and Kh-101 strategic long-range cruise missiles, adding GPS-GLONASS technology to the existing doppler-inertial platform.

Notícia publicada a RIA Novosti. El programa Brahmos segueix amb exit; caldrà estar atents a les properes proves de llançament.

South Korea seeks UGM-84L Harpoon missiles from US*

The US Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) has notified Congress of a possible foreign military sale of 18 UGM-84L Harpoon Block II All-Up-Round Missiles to South Korea.

The estimated $84m foreign military sale (FMS) programme also includes options for associated parts, equipment, logistical support and training.

The proposed package includes one UGM-84L Harpoon telemetry exercise section, containers, guidance control units (GCU) spares, recertification and reconfiguration support, as well as spare and repair parts.

Additional support requested along with the sale, includes tools and tool sets, support equipment, personnel training and training equipment, as well as other related elements of logistics and programme support.

The potential sale of Harpoon Block II missiles is expected to boost the Republic of Korea Navy's (ROK) existing anti-ship missile capability and support in overseas contingency operations.

Apart from enhancing ROK's naval anti-surface warfare performance, the capability will also improve interoperability with the US and other allied forces while providing a superior defensive edge.

Boeing will serve as the prime contractor.

The Harpoon is an all-weather, over-the-horizon, anti-ship missile, manufactured by Boeing, to conduct both land-strike and anti-ship missions against a wide variety of targets.

Designed to provide accurate long-range guidance for land and ship targets, the missile also provides protection to coastal defence sites, surface-to-air missile sites, exposed aircraft, port/industrial facilities and ships in port.

Featuring the low-cost inertial measuring unit from the Joint Direct Attack Munition program, the missile is also equipped with the mission computer, as well as integrated global positioning system/inertial navigation system and the GPS antenna and receiver, from the Standoff Land Attack Missile Expanded Response missile.

The blast warhead can be launched from all existing Harpoon missile system platforms or the new Advanced Harpoon Weapon Control System and enables users to differentiate target ships from islands or other nearby land masses or vessels.

* Notícia publicada a Naval Technology. La venda de míssils Harpoon a Corea del Sud dóna, a qui sàpiga llegir entre línies, unes quantes pistes. Sabent que la l'armada de Corea del Nord són patrulleres, llanxes d'atac ràpid i submarins, els Harpoon tenen un ús limitat. Creiem doncs, que la seva adquisició va més pel camí de preparar-se contra el creixement de l'Armada xinesa.

Russia to Test New Naval Air Defense System by Year End*

Russian air defense systems manufacturer Almaz Antei hopes to complete testing of its new Poliment-Redut ship-based air defense missile system by the end of this year, the company’s General Director Vladislav Menshikov said on Saturday.

Previous Russian media reports have claimed the development of the system has been delayed.

Poliment-Redut is derived from the land-based Vityaz air defense system which uses the 9M96 medium-range air defense missile.

“Work on the system is at a preliminary test stage. But to complete testing we need a ship at sea,” Menshikov said. “This year, by all estimates, testing should be complete. The missiles are ready, we are waiting to go to sea,” Menshikov said in an interview with Vedomosti newspaper published on Saturday.

Almaz Antei is also working on new radars and missiles for its future land-based S-500 air defense system, he said.

Russia is continuing to develop its "promising" airborne defense laser program, Menshikov said.

“The Americans have not managed to achieve the planned results [in their airborne laser projects], although the technology… is still being used in other developments,” he said.

“Similar research work is under way in Russia, and we consider it quite promising,” he said.

The United States began developing airborne defense lasers designed to destroy enemy nuclear intercontinental ballistic missiles in the mid-1990s. In a successful February 2010 test, a multi-megawatt-class chemical oxygen iodine laser installed in a Boeing 747-400F aircraft destroyed a ballistic missile and other targets.

However, the project, which would eventually cost $5 billion, was reportedly shelved because of mounting costs and doubts about its actual practical value.

Nevertheless, Pentagon officials have said the technology would be used to develop other laser defense systems, to be mounted on high altitude drones. 

Notícia publicada a RIA Novosti. Els nous desenvolupaments russos en materia naval, demostren la voluntat d'aquell estat de no quedar-se endarrerit respecte Occident i, especialment, la Xina. Serà una evolució interessant de seguir.

Japan Readies for North Korea Test*

By J. Berkshire Miller

Last week, Japanese Defense Minister Naoki Tanaka indicated to the Diet that the Japanese Self-Defense Forces (SDF) are preparing to deploy Patriot Advanced Capability (PAC) missiles to potentially intercept North Korea’s planned “satellite” launch. The statement came after Pyongyang had announced earlier this month that the launch will take place sometime between April 12-16, to mark the 100^th anniversary of founder Kim Il-sung’s birth. The North Korean move over the expected test has been roundly condemned by Japan – as well as South Korea and the United States – as a violation of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1718.

This week, Tanaka followed up on his earlier pledge by telling the Japanese press that the SDF was preparing to take “destruction measures against (North Korea’s) ballistic missiles.” Cabinet approval for a potential strike was authorized on March 30. Tanaka rebuffed criticism that the deployment was merely rhetorical posturing, stating that the SDF “will expend all possible means to securely implement the necessary preparations in order to protect the lives and property of the people.”

The trajectory of the launch – or whether it will even go forward – remains unclear. Early signals and intelligence indicated that the missile’s path could cross Western Japan, but now reports are pointing to the possibility of the launch covering Japan’s southern islands, including Okinawa.

Tokyo seems to acknowledge the uncertainty, and is attempting to tamp down too much talk of a potential intercept. Japanese Cabinet Chief Secretary Osamu Fujimura, for his part, reassured reporters this week that the SDF measures were strictly defensive and stressed that the government “doesn’t believe anything will fall over Japan’s territory.”

* Notícia publicada a The Diplomat. L'anunci del ministre Tanaka ens posa de manifest el creixent desacomplexament del Japó en la conducció d'operacions militars. Certament, aquesta és plenament justificada tractant-se d'una qüestió de seguretat nacional, com és la possibilitat que un míssil balístic nord-coreà- sobrevoli el seu espai.

Advertisement Naval Swiss Army Knife: MK 41 Vertical Missile Launch Systems (VLS)*

The naval MK 41 Vertical Launching System (VLS) hides missiles below decks in vertical slots, with key electronics and venting systems built in. A deck and hatch assembly at the top of the module protects the missile canisters from the elements, and from other hazards during storage. Once the firing sequence begins, the hatches open to permit missile launches of various types. It is also being adapted for land use, as part of the USA’s plan to forward-deploy ballistic missile defense in allied countries.
The Mk.41 is the most widely-used naval VLS in the world, in service with the US Navy and with many countries outside the United States. Lockheed Martin is the system’s prime contractor, and BAE Systems Land & Armaments also makes components and canisters for the MK 41 system. In September 2011, however, the US Navy assumed the role of final integrator…

• The MK 41 Family of Systems
• MK 41 VLS Contracts, FY 2006 – 2011 [updated]
• Additional Readings

A Naval Swiss Army Knife: The MK 41 VLS

MK 41, loading
(click for alternate view)

More than 11,000 MK.41 VLS missile cells have been delivered, or are on order, for use on 186 ships and 19 ship classes, in 11 navies around the world. This system currently serves with the US Navy as well as the Australian, Canadian, Dutch, German, Japanese, New Zealand, Norwegian, South Korean, Spanish, and Turkish navies.
The MK 41 VLS can hold a wide variety of missiles: anti-air and ballistic missile defense (Sea Sparrow, ESSM, Standard family), anti-submarine (VLASROC), land-attack (Tomahawk) and more. One simply drops different missile canisters into the MK 41’s common interface.
The MK 41 VLS is itself available in 3 different sizes, to meet differing hull and mission requirements:

• The Strike length MK 41 is the largest system accommodating the widest variety of missiles, up to and including Tomahawk cruise missiles for land attack, and SM-3s for ballistic missile defense. In future, it also has the potential to carry Harpoon anti-ship missiles, if a VL-Harpoon is developed. Its capabilities cover almost every threat in naval warfare: anti-air, anti-submarine, ship self-defense, land attack and ballistic missile defense.

• The Tactical length Mk 41 is over 7 feet shorter than the Strike length and can accommodate a variety of missiles up to approximately 18.5 feet in length. The SM-2 and Evolved SeaSparrow air defense missiles, and VL-ASROC anti-submarine missiles, will fit in a tactical length cell.

• The Self-Defense Launcher (SDL) is specifically designed for ship self defense. SDL is shorter and lighter than the other variants. Its size and weight are designed to accommodate smaller ships like corvettes and frigates, as well as aircraft carriers with limited deck and hull space.

The MK 41’s most recent Baseline VII upgrade was rolled out in 2004, upgrading the module’s electronics. Advances include cell-based architecture, commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) processors, a modern real-time operating system, programming written in the object-oriented C++ format, ethernet communications, and fiber optic channels, all within an open architecture approach. These changes opened the door to compliance with the US Navy’s Open Architecture Initiative, added RIM-162 Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile capability, and improved life cycle maintenance and future upgradability.
This Baseline VII configuration is currently fielded on new U.S. Navy destroyers (DDG 91 and later); efforts are underway to modernize the USA’s CG-47 Ticonderoga Class missile cruisers, and eventually older Arleigh Burke Class destroyers as well.
The key to the system’s flexibility is its canisters, which come in different vertical sizes. Canisters provide rocket motor exhaust gas containment and a launch rail during missile firing, and also serve as missile shipping and storage containers. Tactical-length canisters use adapters when fitted into strike-length Mk.41 cells:

• Mk.13: Tactical length canister for standard size SM-2 air defense missile variants
• Mk.14: Strike length canister for BGM-109 TLAM Tomahawk cruise missiles
• Mk.15: Tactical length canister for VL-ASROC anti-submarine rockets
• Mk.21: Strike length canister for SM-2 Block IV, SM-3 Block I long-range air/ballistic missile defense missiles
• Mk.25: Tactical length Quad-pack canister for RIM-162 Evolved SeaSparrow air defense missiles
• Mk.29: Strike length canister for the future SM-3 Block II ballistic missile defense missiles, which are wider. Uses more composites for lighter weight.

Inserts can also enhance a cell’s flexibility. Lockheed Martin’s Extensible Launching System (ExLS) is, in effect, a semi-permanent Mk.41 canister that acts as a quad-pack adapter, allowing ships to fire smaller weapons like Nulka anti-missile decoys, RIM-116 RAM block 2 defensive missiles, or even small land attack missiles, from their Mk.41/Mk.57 vertical launchers. ExLS can also be hosted in a ship on its own, as a launch system in and of itself that competes with the Mk.41 SDL.
The MK41 VLS system’s leading competitor is DCNS’ Sylver family of launchers. They equip the French Navy’s Charles de Gaulle nuclear aircraft carrier, the Franco-Italian Horizon Class frigates, the UK’s Type 45 destroyers, and Saudi Arabia’s LaFayette-derived Sawari II frigates, among others. In 2005 the Sylver launcher was also picked to equip the multi-role Franco-Italian FREMM frigates, which have been ordered by France, Italy, Algeria, and Morocco.

MK 41 VLS Contracts

MK 41 line drawing
(click to view full)

Unless otherwise indicated, all contracts are issued by US Naval Sea Systems Command in Washington, DC.
Jan 10/12: Lockheed Martin MS2 in Baltimore, MD receives a $20.6 million modification to previously awarded contract for MK 41 VLS production support material, interim support parts, and equipment to support construction of new Arleigh Burke Class Flight IIA destroyers.
Work will be performed in Baltimore, MD (41.1%); Lewisburg, TN (19.1%); Fort Walton Beach, FL (18.8%); Johnstown, PA (9.2%); Simpsonville, SC (5.5%); Clearwater, FL (3.2%); and Sterling Heights, MI (3.1%). Work is expected to be complete by June 2015. US Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity (N00024-11-C-5302).
Nov 23/11: Lockheed Martin MS2 in Baltimore, MD receives an $11.7 million contract modification for MK 41 VLS ordnance alteration kits, production support material, interim support parts, and equipment in support of DDG 51 class destroyer new construction, overall Aegis modernization programs, and land-based Aegis Ashore programs. Aegis Ashore is likely to require significant physical engineering changes, while the electronics need to be kept up to date with planned upgrades to the Aegis combat system and other shipboard equipment.
Work will be performed in Baltimore, MD (41.1%); Lewisburg, TN (19.1%); Ft Walton Beach, FL (18.8%); Johnstown, PA (9.2%); Simpsonville, SC (5.5%); Clearwater, FL (3.2%); and Sterling Heights, MI. (3.1%), and is expected to be complete by September 2014. US Naval Sea Systems Command in Washington, DC issues the contracts.
Sept 22/11: Lockheed Martin Maritime Systems and Sensors (MS2) in Baltimore MD receives an $8.8 million contract modification to provide electrical design agent services for the MK 41 Vertical Launching System (VLS). Work can include the integration of new missiles into VLS; integration of VLS into new ships; technical refresh; systems engineering; computer program engineering; and failure analyses.
Work will be performed in Baltimore, MD (82%), and Ventura, CA (18%), and is expected to be complete by December 2012.
Sept 1/11: Aviation Week reports that the U.S. Navy’s Program Executive Office for Integrated Warfare Systems (PEO IWS) will now acquire FY 2010-2012 VLS launcher module mechanical structures directly from the subcontractor, and assume the role of major systems integrator. PEO IWS VLS Program Manager Toan Nguyen:
“We broke the mold on an established business engagement and emphasized a message of affordability…. By eliminating efforts associated with managing the major subcontractor, we have gained efficiency while retaining our efficient manufacturing and integration processes.”
June 29/11: Lockheed Martin MS2 in Baltimore, MD receives a $13.1 million contract modification for MK 41 VLS ordnance alteration kits, production support material, interim support parts, and equipment in support of DDG 51-class new construction, and of Aegis modernization programs for the Navy’s CG-47 cruisers and DDG-51 destroyers.
Work will be performed in Baltimore, MD (29.5%); Ft. Walton Beach, FL (18.8%); Moorestown, NJ (11.6%); Lewisburg, TN (10.1%); Johnstown, PA (9.2%); Owego, NY (9.0%); Simpsonville, SC (5.5%); Clearwater, FL (3.2%); and Sterling Heights, MI (3.1%), and is expected to be complete by June 2013 (N00024-11-C-5302).
June 20/11: Mk41 for British Type 45 destroyers? Raytheon Missile Systems VP Ed Miyashiro is telling journalists that a number of other platforms are being looked at for NATO/European ballistic missile defense, including Britain’s Type 45s. The ship class’ MBDA Aster-30 missiles have just begun land tests against ballistic missiles, but Raytheon’s SM-3 family has both a longer testing record, and an SM-3 Block II that promises very significant performance improvements. For cash-strapped European governments, it also comes with much cheaper missile defense development costs, thanks to American and Japanese advance work.
The issue would be integration. Spanish F100 frigates are the most straightforward, with the same AN/SPY-1D radars and Mk.41 Vertical Launch System (VLS) as American ships. The same AEGIS BMD upgrade set used in American destroyers would suffice. Dutch and German F124 frigates, and the pending Danish Ivar Huitfeldt Class ships, also carry the MK.41 VLS, but use higher-performance Thales APAR and SMART-L radars. That requires additional integration and modification work, but all 3 classes are using a shared core system. The British, French, and Italian ships would be the most work. While they all share a similar core air defense system, they all use different radars, while sharing key electronics and DCNS’ Sylver VLS. That means both electronics work, and physical changes to the weapons array. In his conversations, Miyashiro mentions that they’re looking into the possibility of fielding SM-3 compatible inserts in DCNS’ Sylver A70 VLS, which is the required size for the 6.6 meter SM-3. Britain’s Type 45 Daring Class has space for adding the larger Sylver A70 launchers up front, but Miyashiro has reportedly said that they’re also looking at the possibility of inserting the Mk.41 VLS there.
A Mk.41 VLS would require some combat system integration, in exchange for very wide flexibility beyond the SM-3s. It would also give the Daring Class the ability to use an array of new weapons, including Tomahawk land attack cruise missiles, which current British doctrine will only fire from submarines. Aviation Week | Defense News.
June 3/11: BAE Systems Land & Armaments, LP in Minneapolis, MN wins a $54.6 million firm-fixed-price sole-source contract for MK 41 Vertical Launching System mechanical modules and related equipment and services. This contract includes options which, if exercised, would bring its cumulative value to $55.5 million.
The launchers will be installed in 3 different DDG-51 Arleigh Burke Flight IIA destroyers: HII’s DDG 113 & 114, and Bath Iron Works’ DDG-115. Each ship will receive 2 sets, for a total of 6. Production on the missile launchers will begin in June 2011 and run through 2013, though the contract runs to September 2015. Work will be performed in Aberdeen, SD (45%); Aiken, SC (25%); York, PA (20%); Louisville, KY (5%); and Fridley, MN (5%). Work is expected to be complete by September 2015 (N00024-11-C-5301). See also BAE release.
March 30/11: BAE Systems in Minneapolis, MN receives an $8.9 million contract modification to help integrate wider (21” vs. 13.5”) SM-3 Block II missiles into the MK 41 vertical launching system. The firm will provide design, analysis, and test services for the MK 29 Mod 0 canister in support of Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD), and engineering services for MK 21 Mod 3 canisters and MK 41 installation efforts.
Work will be performed in Minneapolis, MN (77%), and Brea, CA (23%), and is expected to be complete by December 2011 (N00024-09-C-5394).
Nov 29/10: The US Navy’s PEO-Integrated Warfare Systems issues a readiness and sustainment contract to BAE Systems, to establish and maintain the ship interfaces for the Standard Missile family. That includes, but is not exclusive to, the Mk41 vertical launch systems carrying the missiles. These services include systems and software engineering, systems integration, testing, and computer-aided design. The contract has a 1-year base period, with up to 4 one-year options. If all options are exercised, it will be worth $60 million. Work will be conducted at a BAE Systems Support Solutions facility in Rockville, MD, and at customer sites in Tucson, AZ and around the world.
Under the same contract, the company also works with the Navy to support Standard Missile family interfaces for Australia, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, and Taiwan. BAE Systems.
Nov 19/10: Lockheed Martin Mission Systems & Sensors, Ships and Aviation Systems in Baltimore, MD receives a $24.5 million firm-fixed-price contract modification, exercising to exercise the 2nd option for spare and repair parts used in the MK-41 vertical launching system.
Work will be performed in Baltimore, MD (15%), and Ventura, CA (85%), and is expected to be complete by November 2014. The Naval Inventory Control Point in Mechanicsburg, PA manages this contract (N00104-01-D-ZD52).

ExLS, explained
(click to view full)

Sept 30/10: Successful thermal model testing of the new Mk.29 VLS canister on board the US Navy’s Self Defense Test Ship. NSWC Port Hueneme engineers took the lead in coordinating the event requirements and schedule, prepared the ship for testing, reviewed test planning documentation, provided 7 other VLS canisters for the test event and conducted the onload and offload of the 8 VLS canisters to and from the test ship.
The canister and missile used were the MK 29 Mod 0 Prototype P1 canister and SM-3 Blk IIA engineering unit inert missile. The Mk29 canister is designed to house the future SM-3 Block IIA , which is 21” wide throughout. The SM-3 Block 1s, which fit into Mk21 canisters, are just 13.5” wide above the booster stage. The MK 29 canister design is also a departure from previous VLS canister designs, using mostly composite materials in order to reduce weight. US NAVSEA.
Aug 11/10: Lockheed Martin announces a successful test-firing of a Nulka decoy from their new Extensible Launching System (ExLS) insert. ExLS allows a ship to launch launch of smaller payloads like Nulka decoys or NLOS-LS missiles from Mk41 VLS or larger Mk57 PVLS VLS cells. This avoids deck mountings that might compromise stealth, or custom launchers with their added costs.
The flight test at Eglin AFB, FL comes after 3 years of development and integration, and demonstrated the new launcher in a fully tactical configuration. The ExLS test was conducted with support from the Naval Surface Warfare Centers at Dahlgren, VA and Crane, IN, as well as Nulka developer BAE Systems Australia.
June 30/10: BAE Systems, Land & Armaments, LP, U.S. Combat Systems, Minneapolis, Minn., is being awarded a $9.1 million contract modification for FY 2009 canister production of MK25 Evolved Seasparrow quad-pack canisters.
Work will be performed in Aberdeen, SD (80%); Odessa, MO (10%); and Minneapolis, MN (10%); and is expected to be completed by February 2012 (N00024-09-C-5317).
April 13/10: BAE Systems Land and Armaments’ U.S. Combat Systems division in Minneapolis, MN receives an $8.6 million not-to-exceed contract modification to integrate SM-3 and SM-6 ERAM missiles into Mk.41 canisters and launchers. This mechanical design agent work will be performed in Minneapolis, MN (80%), Brea, CA (15%), and San Diego, CA (5%), and is expected to be complete by April 2011 (N00024-09-C-5394). SM-3s have already been fired from Mk.41 launchers as a matter of course. In response to DID’s questions, BAE Systems said that their work extended to new variants:
”...yes, there are several versions of SM-3 [to integrate, as well as the new SM-6]; we are working for the US Navy to integrate them with Mk 41 and to design missile canisters for them. We coordinate Mk 41 launcher integration with our teammate Lockheed Martin.”
Feb 1/10: Lockheed Martin Maritime Systems and Sensors in Baltimore MD received a $31.4 million cost-plus-fixed fee contract to be the electrical design agent for the MK 41 VLS, on behalf of the USN and 8 allied navies. It combines purchases for the US Navy (26.7%), and the governments of Japan (29.7%), Turkey (14.2%), Australia (7.7%), Spain (7.0%), Canada (6.0%), South Korea (5.0%), Netherlands (2.1%), and Germany (1.6%); and includes options which, if exercised, would bring its cumulative value to $104.9 million over 4 years.
Efforts under the contract include design agent services to support the MK 41 VLS program and the life cycle support facility through efforts such as the integration of new missiles into the VLS, integration of VLS into new ships, technical refresh, systems engineering, computer program engineering, and failure analyses.
Work will be performed in Baltimore, MD (92%); and Ventura, CA (8%); and is expected to be completed by September 2011. Contract funds in the amount of $3.2 million will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured by US Naval Sea Systems Command at the Washington Navy Yard, DC (N00024-10-C-5347). See also Lockheed Martin release

SM-3 Evolution
(click to view full)

Aug 6/09: BAE Systems Land & Armaments LP’s U.S. Combat Systems in Minneapolis, MN received a $7.5 million ceiling cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for canister integration and mechanical design agent services related to the Mk 41 VLS’ fit with Standard Missile (SM) SM-3 and forthcoming SM-6 missiles. The SM-6 is a new missile that will replace the SM-2, while SM-3 is adding new features and SM-3 Block II will widen the missile body to 21”. BAE would later inform DID that this contract was specifically targeted at the SM-3 Block IIA, along with SM-6.
Work will be performed in Minneapolis, MN (90%); Brea, CA (10%), and is expected to be complete by August 2010. This contract was not competitively procured by the Naval Sea Systems Command in Washington, DC (N00024-09-C-5394).
March 20/09: Lockheed Martin Maritime Systems and Sensors in Baltimore, MD received a fixed-price, not-to-exceed $49.9 million contract for FY 2009 MK 41 Vertical Launching System (VLS) production and delivery requirements. This contract combines purchases for the U.S. Navy (43%), and for the governments of Turkey (56%) and Australia (1%t) under the Foreign Military Sales Program.
Work will be performed in Baltimore, MD (64%); Minneapolis, MN (19%); Fort Walton Beach, FL (14%); Eagan, MN (2%); and Virginia Beach, VA (1%), and is expected to be complete by December 2012. This contract was not competitively procured (N00024-09-C-5392).
Nov 20/08: Lockheed Martin Maritime Systems and Sensors (MS2) received a $6.3 million modification to a previously awarded contract for design agent engineering services. They will support updated MK 41 Vertical Launch System (VLS) installation in the U.S. Navy’s CG-47 Ticonderoga Class guided missile cruiser modernization program, and the Turkish Navy’s MEKO Track IIA and IIB frigates.
Work will be performed in Baltimore, MD (84%) and Ventura, CA (16%), and is expected to be complete by May 2009 (N00024-04-C-5453). See also Lockheed Martin release.
April 4/08: The US Defense Security Cooperation Agency announces [PDF] Turkey’s formal request for 6 MK 41 Vertical Launch System (VLS) Baseline VII tactical modules, and 2 sets of MK 41 VLS upgrade kits. They would be used to modernize 2 MEKO Track IIA frigates and 4 ex-FFG-7 Oliver Hazard Perry Class frigates, and to upgrade 2 MEKO Track IIB frigates’ MK-41 VLS from baseline IV to baseline VII configuration. Updates to the ships’ fire control system upgrades will add RIM-162 Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile capability. Services will include installation and testing, U.S. Government and contractor engineering and logistics personnel services, equipment operation and maintenance, personnel training and training equipment, support and test equipment, spare and repair parts, publications and technical documentation, launch system software development and maintenance and other related elements of logistics support. The estimated cost is $227 million.
The principal contractor will be Lockheed Martin Maritime Systems and Sensors of Baltimore, MD, and Moorestown, NJ. There are no known offset agreements proposed in connection with this potential sale, and implementation of this proposed sale will not require the assignment of any additional U.S. Government representatives or contractor representatives to Turkey.
Aug 30/07: Lockheed Martin Naval Electronics & Surveillance Systems in Baltimore, MD received a $6.4 million firm-fixed-price modification #P00121 to previously awarded contract (N00024-98-C-5363) for procurement of 2 MK 41 Vertical Launching System shipsets for the Government of Turkey under the Foreign Military Sales Program. This procurement will include spares, special tools, test equipment, material and services to refurbish fixtures and transport equipment.
Work will be performed in Baltimore, MD (70%) and Minneapolis, MN (30%), and is expected to be complete by March 2010.

SM-2 launch
(click to view full)

Aug 15/07: The US Navy’s Open Architecture Initiative is placing a strong focus on a new electronics approach for its new ships and its upgrade programs. Open architecture exploits commercial computing technology standards, which makes it easier for the Navy to switch vendors, replace components, and perform upgrades when necessary.
Lockheed Martin’s release describes their Mk41 VLS open architecture efforts, from past upgrades that laid the foundation, to current efforts aimed at making the system’s software “portable” across different computer processors and operating systems, to future efforts aimed at greater software modularity and re-use.
July 26/07: Lockheed Martin announces a $23.2 million firm fixed price contract modification to upgrade MK 41 Vertical Launching System (VLS) on the USA’s CG-47 Ticonderoga Class guided missile cruisers to Baseline VII status. The effort is part of Naval Sea Systems Command’s Cruiser Modernization Program, which will update the ships’ combat systems, as well as the hull, mechanical and electrical systems.
Specifically, Lockheed Martin will provide new electronics hardware to upgrade the MK 41 VLS to Baseline VII on 2 of the 16 modules aboard the USA’s 22 serving CG 47-class ships (each module is 8 cells). The upgrade will extend the multi-mission launching system capability to include the RIM-162 Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile (ESSM), which will let the ships carry up to 64 of these air defense missiles in their 16 modernized Baseline VII cells. Lockheed Martin release.
March 15/07: BAE Armament Systems Division in Minneapolis, MN received a $19.1 million fixed-price-award-fee modification to previously awarded contract (N00024-04-C-5464) for procurement of FY 2007 MK 14 MOD 2 Canisters. It covers the renewal and upgrade of 145 existing canisters and the manufacturing of 97 new MK 14 canisters, and includes packaging, handling, storage, transportation equipment, and FY07 reconfigurable coding plug assemblies. Work will be performed in Aberdeen, SD; deliveries are expected to begin by summer 2008, and are expected to be complete by January 2009. BAE release.
MK 14 canisters for the MK 41 vertical launching system, store, transport in safety, and enable loading of Tomahawk land attack cruise missiles into the MK 41 vertical launching systems aboard DDG-51 Arleigh Burke Class destroyers and CG-47 Ticonderoga Class cruisers.
“This contract modification will bring the total of renewed and upgraded canisters under this contract to 1036 MK 14 canisters and the production of 97 MK 14 Mod 2 canisters,” said Gary Tatge, BAE’s program manager of the MK 41 VLS and canisters.
March 13/07: Lockheed Martin Corp. Maritime System and Sensors – Marine Systems in Baltimore, MD received a $16.1 million firm-fixed-price contract modification to previously awarded contract (N00024-98-C-5363) to provide MK 41 Baseline VII Vertical Launching System launcher ship sets for 3 Royal Australian Navy Air Warfare Destroyer Class (Project SEA 4000) ships and Spain’s new F100 Alvaro de Bazan Class frigate [F-105, unnamed as of this writing] under the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) Program.
The modification combines purchases for the governments of Australia (73%) and Spain (27%), and includes the labor associated with production of installation and checkout (INCO) spares, INCO special tools and test equipment, onboard repair parts and other ancillary equipment. Work will be performed in Baltimore, MD and is expected to be completed by December 2009.
Jan 30/07: Lockheed Martin in Baltimore, MD received a $5.6 million cost-plus-award-fee modification under previously awarded contract (N00024-04-C-5453). It exercises options for technical engineering services in support of MK 41 Vertical Launching System Integration for the Governments of Spain (60%); Australia (37%); Germany (2%); and Korea (1%) under the Foreign Military Sales Program.
Work will be performed in Baltimore, MD (80%) and Ventura, CA (20%), and is expected to be complete by October 2008.
Nov 20/06: Lockheed Martin Maritime Systems & Sensors (MS2) Littoral Ships and Systems in Baltimore, MD received $26.6 million to exercise an option under previously awarded contract (N00104-01-D-ZD52) for the manufacture of spare and repair parts used in the MK-41 Vertical Launching System. This will be an undefinitized contractual action for the MK-41 Vertical Launching System Performance Based Logistics (PBL) supply support contract. Work will be performed in Ventura, CA (85%) and Baltimore, MD (15%) and is expected to be complete by November 2010. This contract was not competitively procured by the Naval Inventory Control Point in Mechanicsburg, PA.
Nov 9/06: Lockheed Martin in Baltimore, MD received an $8.7 million cost-plus-award-fee contract modification to previously awarded contract (N00024-04-C-5453) to provide funding for technical instructions that will authorize engineering and technical services support for logistics (requisition and repairs), system integration, product improvement, and production support of MK 41 VLS equipment for new construction ships. This is referred to as “exercise options for engineering and technical services in support of the FY 2007 Vertical Launching System (VLS) Depot, Installation & Check-out (INCO), and logistic requirements.”
Work will be performed in Baltimore, MD (86%) and Ventura, CA (14%) and the work is expected to be complete by October 2007 (N00024-04-C-5453).
Nov 9/06: Lockheed Martin Maritime System and Sensors/ Littoral Ships and Systems in Baltimore, MD received a $60.7 million firm-fixed-price modification under previously awarded contract (N00024-98-C-5363) for procurement of four MK 41, MOD 15 Baseline VII, Vertical Launcher Ship (VLS) Sets. This work is taking place on behalf the Governments of Australia (73.2%) and Spain (26.8%) under the Foreign Military Sales Program.
Lockheed will also provide launcher support equipment and the associated labor for establishing material requisitions, program scheduling requirements, and establishment of purchase orders with suppliers and performance of necessary business and production operations. Work will be performed in Baltimore, MD (52.7%), Minneapolis, MN (22%), Aberdeen, SD (8%), Aiken, SC (7%), Ft. Totten, ND (5.2%), and East Elmhurst, NY (5.1%), and is expected to be complete by December 2008.
Nov 1/06: BAE Systems Land & Armaments, LP in Minneapolis, MN received $8.6 million fixed-price-plus-award-fee modification to previously awarded contract (N00024-04-C-5454) for procurement of MK 25 MOD 0 canisters, packaging, handling, storage, and transportation equipment, reconfigurable coding plug assemblies and explosive bolts for Navy and NATO SeaSparrow Program Office (NSPO) foreign government requirements. MK 25 canisters for the MK 41 Vertical Launching System store, transport in safety, and enable loading of the RIM-162 Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile (ESSM) into the MK 41 Vertical Launching Systems aboard Navy ships. This modification combines efforts for the US Navy (57%) and the Governments of Germany (32%) and Spain (11%) under the foreign military sales program. Work will be performed in Aberdeen, SD and is expected to be complete by December 2008.
Sept 15/06: BAE Systems Land & Armaments LP in Minneapolis, MN received a $15.6 million fixed-price, award-fee modification to previously awarded contract (N00024-04-C-5454) for procurement of FY 2006 Mk. 13 MOD 0 Canisters for FY 2006 Navy and Foreign Military Sales, including packaging, handling, storage, and transportation equipment, and FY 2006 Reconfigurable Coding Plug Assemblies.
Mk 13 canisters for the MK 41 Vertical Launching System store, transport in safety, and enable loading of SM-2 Standard air defense missiles into the MK 41 Vertical Launching Systems aboard various US and foreign ships [1]. Work will be performed in Aberdeen, SD and is expected to be complete by January 2008. This modification supports requirements for the US Navy (16%); the Governments of Japan (30%) and South Korea (25%) under the Foreign Military Sales program; and the Governments of Germany (20%) and The Netherlands (9%) under a Memorandum of Understanding.
April 10/06: Lockheed Martin Corp. Maritime System and Sensors – Marine Systems in Baltimore, MD received a $50.6 firm-fixed-price modification to previously awarded contract (N00024-98-C-5363). The contract modification provides funding for the procurement of the hardware, design, fabrication and delivery of 36 MK 41 VLS Baseline VII modules, with sets of 12 being installed on each of three new DDG-51 Arleigh Burke Class destroyers. This modification completes the procurement of the modules initiated by a $27 million August 2005 contract awarded in August 2005 for the purchase of long-lead materials.
Design and fabrication work will be performed at Lockheed Martin’s Middle River, MD, facility outside Baltimore, while other work takes place in Aberdeen, SD (40%); Minneapolis, MN (10%). Delivery is scheduled to be complete in 2010. See also Lockheed release.
March 22/06: BAE Systems and Armaments, LP in Minneapolis, MN received a $6.4 million fixed-price-plus-award-fee modification to previously awarded contract (N00024-04-C-5464) for procurement of Mk 14 MOD 2 Canisters for FY 2006 USN requirements, including packaging, handling, storage, and transportation equipment, and FY 06 Reconfigurable Coding Plug Assemblies. Mk 14 canisters for the MK 41 Vertical Launching System store, transport in safety, and enable loading of Tomahawk land attack cruise missiles into MK 41 Vertical Launching Systems like the ones aboard the USA’s DDG-51 Arleigh Burke Class destroyers and CG-47 Ticonderoga Class cruisers. Work will be performed at Aberdeen, SD and is expected to be complete by January 2008. This contract was not competitively procured.
Feb 20/06: Lockheed Martin received a $5.4 million contract modification from the U.S. Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) to continue providing technical and engineering support services for the MK 41 Vertical Launch System (VLS) program. The modification includes $4.4 million for Lockheed Martin to perform VLS Baseline VII design engineering support to the MK 41. The work includes VLS tactical software updates, auto test equipment maintenance, and other engineering support for Baseline VII that will be performed at Lockheed Martin’s Baltimore facility. In addition, $1 million goes to support the VLS Depot at the company’s Life Cycle Support facility in Ventura, CA. See Lockheed release.
Dec 30/06: BAE Systems and Armaments, LP in Minneapolis, MN received a $9.8 million fixed-price-plus-award-fee modification to previously awarded contract (N00024-04-C-5464) for procurement of FY 2006 Mk 14 MOD 2 canisters for FY 2006 USN requirements, including packaging, handling, storage, and transportation equipment, and FY 2006 reconfigurable coding plug assemblies. Mk 14 canisters for the MK 41 Vertical Launching System store, transport in safety, and enable loading of Tomahawk land attack cruise missiles into MK 41 Vertical Launching Systems like the ones aboard the USA’s DDG-51 Arleigh Burke Class destroyers and CG-47 Ticonderoga Class cruisers. Work will be performed in Aberdeen, SD and is expected to be complete by January 2008.

Footnotes

fn1. The DefenseLINK release says that the Mk.13s enable loading of Tomahawk missiles, but this is incorrect. Several of the countries listed as part of this contract simply do not employ Tomahawk land attack cruise missiles in any capacity – but they do employ SM-2 air defense missiles, which the MK 13 does accommodate.

Additional Readings

• US Navy Fact File – MK 41 VLS

• Lockheed Martin – Mk41 Vertical Launching System (MK 41 VLS).

• BAE Systems – VLS MK 41 Strike Length Missile. Strike length cells, as opposed to Tactical length Mk.41 cells, can accommodate longer missiles like the SM-3 anti-ballistic missile and Tomahawk cruise missile.

• BAE Systems – VLS Mk 41 Missile. As the U.S. Navy’s Mk 41 canister design agent, BAE Systems has developed the Mk 25 Quad-Pack canister that fits 4 RIM-162 ESSM anti-aircraft missiles into a single Mk.41 cell.

• Lockheed Martin – Extensible Launching System (ExLS) (video). Fits into a Mk. 41 cell, as an semi-permanent adapter for a range of existing and new munitions. Quad-packed Nulka decoys or RIM-116 RAM missiles, or strike munitions like NLOS-LS/NETFIRES, are some examples. Developed under IRAD funding.

• Global Security – MK 41 VLS

• DID – BMD, in from the Sea: SM-3 Missiles Going Ashore. Mk.41 launchers will also be land-based, now.

• DCNS – Sylver. Also a family of launchers, from the small A35 to the strike-length A70.

• Raytheon – Mk 57 Vertical Launching System brochure [PDF]. Used only on the USA’s DDG-1000 Zumwalt Class. Will accommodate larger missiles with higher rocket massflow than the Mk.41, uses a more advanced exhaust gas management system, and is designed to lower the risk of secondary explosions if the VLS itself is targeted by advanced cruise missiles.

* Article publicat a Defense Industry Daily. Us el recomanem per la versatilitat de les llançadores Mk 41-