LCS SeaRAM Destroys Anti-Ship Cruise Missile

by Kris Osborn

The Navy’s SeaRAM ship-based defensive missile succeeded in attacking and destroying an aerial drone designed to mirror an anti-ship missile target as part of a Littoral Combat Ship’s Combat System Qualification Trials, service officials said. 

The test, which took place aboard the Navy’s USS Jackson LCS off the coast of California, was designed to test the ship’s ability to track and disable high-speed maneuvering surface targets and defeat long range anti-shipping air threats, a Navy statement said. The assessment also included the firing of the LCS’ 57mm gun against fast attack craft.

Arming the Surface Fleet With SeaRam

The qualification testing was intended to fortify a broader Navy effort to further arm its surface fleet with SeaRam missiles, defensive weapons engineered to fire from the MK-49 Guided Missile Launching System, or GMLS.

In recent months, the Navy has begun arming forward-deployed destroyers with the emerging SeaRam ship-defense weapon able to track and destroy attacking enemy missiles, drones, aircraft, small boats and other threats, officials said.

The SeaRAM weapons system, designed to fire Rolling Airframe Missiles out of a Close-in-Weapons System, is planned to operate on the USS Porter, USS Carney, USS Ross and USS Donald Cook, Navy officials have said.

“SeaRAM combines two highly successful U.S. Navy systems: the MK 15 Close-In Weapon System (CIWS) and the MK 31 Rolling Airframe Missile (RAM) launching system,” the Navy official said.