by Kris Osborn, President, Warrior
The Commander of the Navy’s USS Eisenhower’s Carrier Strike Group 2 said maritime warfare operations against Houthi attacks in the Red Sea involved a “first-time” combat use of upgraded variants of several key weapons systems.
“I witnessed strikes from both crewed and uncrewed aircraft, observed warships defending against air and surface threats, and watched two rescues of civilian mariners from merchant ships struck by Houthi missiles,” Rear Admiral Kavon ‘Hak’ Hakimzadeh, Commanding officer of Carrier Strike Group 2, wrote in a an interesting essay reflecting on his combat experience published in the Center for Maritime Strategy.
Hakimzadeh writes that the combat deployment, which included the destruction and successful interception of Houthi-fired cruise missiles, high-diver ballistic missiles, drones and anti-ship missiles, used deck-launched interceptors, carrier-launched F/A-18s and a host of cutting edge air-to-air and air-to-ground weapons.
The Navy’s Carrier Strike Group 2, a combat group consisting of the IKE’s Carrier Air Wing 3 and four warships, protected international military and commercial traffic in the Red Sea for more than seven months; the group included several US Navy cruisers and destroyers, including the USS Philippine Sea, USS Gravely, USS Laboon, USS Mason, and USS Carney.
When the USS Laboon returned home to Norfolk Naval Base, Hakimzadeh told Warrior in an interview that the weapons functioned successfully and as intended due to focused training, war preparations and the implementation of US Navy maritime warfare doctrine.
“Our training works and our doctrine works. The CNO says it all the time…. our people are the secret weapon. They reacted the way they were supposed to and the weapons systems responded the way they were supposed to. We knew everything was going to work but we got real world experience – its a starting point to move on to the next level,” Hakimzadeh told Warrior at the USS Laboon homecoming.
The combat “firsts” in the Red Sea with Hakimzadeh’s Carrier Strike Group were extensive, he writes, including a first air-to-air engagement by an EA-18G Growler, first combat employment of upgraded weapons such as the AGM-154C JSOW glide bomb, AGM 114K Hellfire and AGM-88E AARGM anti-radiation missile designed to destroy enemy air defenses. Hakimzadeh’s essay also described new tactics and concepts of operation, such as the first “surface-to-air engagement of a hostile unmanned aerial vehicle by a US warship.”
Modernized Weapons First Used in Combat
Critical upgrades to weapons systems and bombs are often the result of extensive innovation, research, testing and requirements adjustments, yet the ultimate barometer regarding the effectiveness of the improved weapons can arguably only be established in combat.
Joint Stand-Off Weapon JSOW
For instance, the US Navy fired an upgraded variant of the Joint Stand-Off-Weapon (JSOW) air-fired weapon launched from all variants of the F/A-18E fighter aircraft called the AGM-154C JSOW glide bomb. A US Navy essay on the AGM-154C says the upgraded variant incorporates a 500-pound blast/fragmentation/penetrator BLU-111 warhead effective against fixed-point targets such as hardened buildings, logistical systems and command and control centers. A larger more capable air-fired JSOW, potentially armed with various kinds of “energetics” or explosive capability, could increase the weapons range of attack, precision, lethality and ability to destroy a wider range of targets. The Navy designed AARGM to improve the effectiveness of the legacy AGM-88B/C High-Speed Anti Radiation Missile (HARM).
“This variant (JSOW AGM-154C) uses an uncooled, long-wave imaging infrared seeker with autonomous target acquisition for precise targeting,” the Navy essay also says.
“Autonomous target acquisition,” as described by the Navy essay, introduces a new sphere of technological capability as next-generation weapons are increasingly able to independently acquire targets, adjust course in flight as needed and “guide” themselves to a precise “hit” without needing human intervention. The weapon uses GPS, inertial navigation systems, LINK 16 and an IR seeker.
Advanced Anti-Radiation Guided Missile AARGM AGM-88E
The AARGM uses anti-radiation targeting to destroy enemy air defenses, regardless of whether they are “radiating” or shut down. An essay on AARGM from the Pentagon’s DOT&E Department of Tests and Evaluation says the weapon is designed to “suppress, degrade and destroy radio frequency-enabled surface-to-air missile defense systems.”
The AARGM AGM-88E is designed to improve the AGM-88B/C High-Speed Anti Radiation Missile (HARM). The newest variant of the weapon is engineered to make in-flight adjustments and shift from passive detection of radio frequency emissions to an “active” millimeter wave terminal radar.
“AARGM incorporates digital Anti-Radiation Homing, a GPS, Millimeter Wave guidance, and a Weapon Impact Assessment transmitter. – Anti-Radiation Homing improvements include an increased field of view and increased detection range,” the DOT&E essay explains. “The Millimeter Wave radar technology allows target discrimination and guidance during the terminal flight phase.”
Millimeter Wave guidance brings the added advantage of being an “all-weather” weapon, meaning it can sustain guidance through fog, smoke, clouds or other weather obscurants.
