By Kris Osborn, President, Warrior Maven
(Washington DC) In what could be heralded as the beginning of a potential breakthrough, the Pentagon has demonstrated that the well-known and proven Aegis Combat System is capable of tracking and defending against a hypersonic missile attack. The Missile Defense Agency, US Navy and Lockheed Martin used the latest Aegis software to successfully intercept a hypersonic threat in a virtual configuration. Should this technology further mature to operational status, US Navy ship-based missile defense would hit a paradigm-changing breakthrough, given how difficult it is to track and defend against incoming hypersonic weapons.
The primary challenge with hypersonic weapons is largely a matter of pure speed. While hypersonic projectiles are increasingly being engineered with new forms of guidance and targeting, the weapons simply travel too quickly from one radar aperture of “field of view” to another such that defenses are unable to sustain a continuous target track. This continues to be the fundamental challenges with hypersonic weapons defense, yet key programs are showing promise using Medium and Low Earth Orbit satellite networking and “integrated” tracking technologies to advance new countermeasures.
This new intercept, however, would come from the sea .. something which introduces new layers of great significance to mobile maritime missile defense. A mobile US Navy warship, if connected with satellites and air and ground target tracking nodes, could reposition itself as needed to track the threat curve from improved angles. For instance, a Navy ship capable of hypersonic defense could position itself in range to detect and track enemy “launches” in order to detect them at earlier stages of flight, something which gives commanders and sailors manning defensive systems a broader and more timely window with which to choose a countermeasure.
An MDA essay on the test described that it wasconducted off the coast of the Pacific Missile Range Facility, Kauai, Hawaii. A Navy destroyed called the USS Pinckney “demonstrated the ability to detect, track and perform a simulated engagement of an advanced maneuvering hypersonic target using the Sea Based Terminal Increment 3 capability embedded in the latest Aegis software baseline,” the MDA Said.
The tracking exercise included firing a simulated Standard Missile (SM)-6 upgraded missile at the target, an air-launched Medium Range Ballistic Missile with a Hypersonic Target Vehicle (HTV) – 1 front end. This target is engineered to allow testing and defeat of a variety of hypersonic threats. FTX-40 also provided a data collection opportunity for the Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor (HBTSS) demonstration satellite, the MDA essay explained.
It would make sense that the data collection would be intended to support both Aegis Combat System defense as well as HBTSS, as that system integrates MEO and LEO satellites to establish a hypersonic track threat. Ideally, both HBTSS and Aegis Radar could network together an interface to enable high-speed hypersonic weapons tracking and intercept.
Computer Simulation
A Lockheed essay explained that the intercept was the result of a computer simulation, yet technological capability and performance parameters can now be replicated with great precision using digital engineering and computer simulation. Computer simulation has shown in recent years that it can very precisely evaluate designs and weapons systems, and greatly expedite the development curve of major weapons systems. These kinds of techniques were used with great success developing key major acquisition programs such as the Sentinel ICBM and Next-Generation Air Dominance.
“Our Aegis Combat System successfully defended against a simulated hypersonic threat,” Chandra Marshall, vice president of Multi-Domain Combat Solutions at Lockheed Martin, said in a Lockheed essay. “Aegis Baseline 9’s hypersonic defense advantage against a MRBM (Medium Range Ballistic Missile) target brings incredible capability that allows our warfighter to see the unseen, sooner, ensuring our sailors get in front of threats quickly.”
This demonstration potentially represents a paradigm-changing breakthrough for Aegis, which uses advanced software, high-sensitivity long-range radar and fire control technology to “see,” “track,” and destroy incoming ballistic missile threats from the ocean. Aegis has evolved massively in recent years, as Baseline 9 and Baseline 10 configurations are able to integrate ballistic missile defense with air and cruise missile defense on a single system.
Improvements to Aegis radar have been iterative, as Navy and industry engineers have consistently integrated software upgrades intended to improve the functionality, range, scope and performance of the system. Aegis Radar Baseline 10, for instance, has in recent years received a technical insertion package intended to improve networking, guidance, threat detection capabilities and intercept technologies. In recent years, Aegis Combat Systems have been able to show that they not only defend against ballistic missiles but can also use larger, upgraded SM-3 Block IIA missiles to intercept enemy ICBM target as they descend from space into the terminal phase and re-enter the earth’s atmosphere.
SM-6
Interestingly, the virtual intercept use an SM-6 missile, a weapon which has itself been greatly upgraded over the years with new sensing, software and intercept capability. The SM-6, Raytheon weapons developers explained to Warrior years ago, can now operate with a dual mode seeker, meaning it can adapt to moving targets while in flight. The weapons seeker has been upgraded with software to enable its own forward “ping” and adjust to moving targets without having to rely upon a ship-based illuminator.
Kris Osborn President of Warrior Maven – Center for Military Modernization. Osborn previously served at the Pentagon as a highly qualified expert in 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
