Navy SM-6 Explodes & Sinks Surface Ship

By Kris Osborn

Previous oriented toward air and ballistic missile defense, Raytheon officials said.

“The anti-surface warfare test proved that SM-6 could attack a surface ship. It destroyed a Perry-class fast Frigate. The big deal for us is that the SM-6 proved its capability with sea targets,” Mike Campisi, SM-6 Senior Director, Raytheon, told Scout Warrior in an interview.

The test, which took place at Pacific Missile Range Facility, Hawaii, involved the rare event of an actual destruction and sinking of a decommisisoned or retired Navy ship.

The firing of the SM-6 was designed to analyze new software configurations on the missile, giving it an ability to track and destroy targets on the surface of the water – as opposed to hitting or intercepting incoming enemy fire from the air above a ship or near the earth’s atmospere as a ballistic missile defense weapon.

“The entire system was tested at this time. It performed exactly as we expected and the result more than met our expectations. We added to the sea- based terminal capabiity (ballistic missile defense) and anti-air defense,” Campisi added. “In effect,m this will allow the fleet to attack ships with offensive capability and prove out the flip side of area defense — which is distributed lethality.”

The software adjustments to the missile allow a single SM-6 to perform all of its different functions, he explained.

“The system will identify a target and send a signal to the target. Based on the signal, it chooses the software path and the activities it is going to perform in engaging its mission,” Campisi said.