By Kris Osborn, President, Center for Military Modernization
As Houthi-drone and small boat attacks intensify in the Red Sea, US Navy attention has been further directed toward its series of ongoing upgrades to layered ship defenses, a long-standing campaign to better arm surface ships against a new generation of potential enemy threats.
A critical part of this has involved multi-year efforts to increase the range, precision and lethality of the US Navy’s famous 5-inch guns. Since the WWII era, these Mk45 deck-mounted guns have delivered suppressive fire, attack land targets, fortified amphibious assaults with supportive fires and fired on enemy ships. In more recent years, the changing threat equation has inspired the Navy to pursue a number of efforts to improve range, precision and lethality for the Mk 45.
BAE Systems has been working with the Navy the mature Mk45 technology, some of which goes back to previous service efforts on a “rail gun,” however the firm has ventured beyond these previous efforts to migrate the HVP from its previous applications to deck-mounted Navy Mk45 5-inch guns. The early days of the HVP started back in 2013 in collaboration between BAE Systems and the Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren for the Railgun Program.
Integrating the HVP into 5-Inch guns adds precision, range and maneuverability; as is often the case with industry research & development, major industry partners often invest internal funds to develop and prepare technologies well suited to meet Navy needs, solve a problem or “close” a capability gap.
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“We’ve been modernizing the Mk45 for many years, and the most recent development is the application of the Hyper-velocity projectile (HVP). We want to answer Navy’s challenges in what is a trifecta. …increased lethality, increased capacity of that lethal capability and affordability,” Tate Westrook, Director of Business Development for BAE Systems, Navy Guns & Surface Ship Missiles, told Warrior at the 2024 Surface Navy Association Symposium.
BAE Systems is using its own research and development funds to anticipate emerging Navy requirements and engineer a deck-mounted warship weapon able to bring paradigm-changing levels of range, speed and precision to surface warfare. There is an existing 155mm round for US Air Force land-operating self-propelled Howitzer weapons wherein standard artillery cannons shoot HVP rounds for air and base defense. BAE has modified the design to introduce a Navy variant able to fire from the well-known Mk 45 5-inch guns.
“With the Navy variant, part of the round is discarded as soon as it fires out of the rack, but the electronics are almost exactly the same. The fin actuators and the ability to maneuver are common across the 155mm version as well as the Navy,” Westbrook explained.
Yet another key variable associated with the HVP-effort for the 5-inch guns relates to what’s called the “cost-curve,” a way to maximize combat effectiveness for much less money.
“As we’ve seen in recent real -world events in the Red Sea, The Secretary Navy and other senior Navy leaders have been talking with concern about the cost exchange. The idea is to minimize the need to shoot down an armed drone at high cost, a standard missile can cost $2 .1 million dollars,” Westbrook said.
Kris Osborn is President of Warrior Maven – Center for Military Modernization. Osborn previously served at the Pentagon as a Highly Qualified Expert with the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army—Acquisition, Logistics & Technology. Osborn has also worked as an anchor and on-air military specialist at national TV networks. He has appeared as a guest military expert on Fox News, MSNBC, The Military Channel, and The History Channel. He also has a Masters Degree in Comparative Literature from Columbia University.
