The United States Navy continues to take rapid steps to improve its at-sea ballistic missile defense system, an integrated combination of radar, command and control technologies, and networking intended to track and destroy incoming ballistic missiles.
The US Navy has always strongly emphasized layered defenses, yet it has taken on new urgency in recent years due to evolving threats from both China and Russia.
For obvious reasons, Russia’s hypersonic missiles and China’s well-known anti-ship “carrier killer” missiles have increased the urgency with which the Navy continues to modernize its layered defense systems.
This threat scenario has encouraged some to question whether large warships, such as destroyers and carriers, are simply too vulnerable to operate in the ways they have over the years.
The US Navy seems to recognize this and has been progressively adjusting to a new threat environment with improved defensive technologies and adapted tactics and concepts of operation.
Aegis Missile Defense
The key foundation of the Navy’s at-sea ballistic missile defense is known to be the highly praised Aegis Combat System. This technology combines long-range, highly-sensitive radar with ship-based fire control and interceptor weapons.
The system has received numerous software and hardware upgrades in recent years to improve its range, precision, networking, and intercept ability. The latest version, Aegis Baseline 10, has been enhanced with what the Navy calls a “technical insertion,” a series of software upgrades intended to improve the operational ability of the defensive system to respond to new threats.
Currently, the Navy is working with industry to architect a new generation of Aegis technology to further improve its capacity. Yet, the most current and capable variant is Aegis Baseline 10. The latest applications of Aegis radar technology enable systems to perform both ballistic missile defense and air-and-cruise-missile defense on a single integrated system.
Despite the changing threat environment, the Navy has retained certain confidence and resolve related to its layered defenses and the ability of its warships to operate effectively against new weapons.
The improvements have been multi-faceted and wide-ranging, as they have involved the development and integration of new, non-kinetic technologies, tactical adjustments, and upgrades to existing interceptor weapons. For instance, in recent years, the Navy has worked with Raytheon to engineer the new SM-3 Block IIA variant, a larger, longer-range, and more precise weapon capable of tracking and destroying newer threats.
SM-3 Block IIA
Within recent years, the Navy has even successfully demonstrated the ability of the SM-3 Block IIA to work in tandem with an integrated Aegis system to intercept ICBMs traveling at the end of the midcourse phase just above the boundary of the earth’s atmosphere. This interception is significant as it enables mobile maritime forces to re-position ballistic missile defense in response to larger ballistic missiles and ICBM threats.
Typically, ICBMs target using Ground-Based Interceptors (GBI) capable of launching from land to track and intercept ICBMs during the mid-course portion of their flight while they travel through space. GBIs have increasingly received upgrades with “exo-atmospheric” kill vehicles capable of discerning decoys and debris from actual missiles, a level of discrimination fundamental to successful missile defense. However, this process is not without challenges, although the Pentagon has engineered “multiple-kill” vehicles that detach from a host missile and intercept multiple targets simultaneously. Also, in response to the changing threat environment, the Pentagon is now fast-tracking its new, Next-Generation Interceptor capable of addressing a new generation of ICBM and ballistic missile threats.
However, having a sea-based component to this kind of ballistic and ICBM missile defense brings an entirely new mobile, at-sea protective envelope. For example, a collection of dispersed warships can form a meshed web of networked ballistic missile defense nodes capable of maneuvering in response to potentially changing enemy attacks.
Arguably, the most considerable advantage of evolving Aegis ballistic missile defense is explained by the US connectivity with its allied Aegis-member nations. Overall, there are at least seven Aegis partners. Japan, for example, is an Aegis ally that has modernized its force with Aegis radar, enabling a combined US-and-Japanese allied “wall” or “perimeter” of defense throughout critical portions of the Pacific.
(Dec. 14, 2021) Amphibious transport dock ship USS Portland (LPD 27) conducts a high-energy laser weapon system demonstration on a static surface training target, Dec. 14, while sailing in the Gulf of Aden. During the demonstration, the Solid State Laser – Technology Maturation Laser Weapons System Demonstrator Mark 2 MOD 0 aboard Portland successfully engaged the training target. The photograph was captured utilizing a short wave infrared lens and optical filter. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Staff Sgt. Donald Holbert)
It would be difficult to underestimate this capability because most publicly available published wargame scenarios analyzing a potential conflict with China posit that any surprise attack on Taiwan or the South China Sea will likely begin with a salvo of ballistic missiles.
Ship-Fired Lasers
The Navy and Missile Defense Agency (MDA) have also fast-tracked ship-fired lasers that are increasingly capable of incinerating several incoming targets simultaneously. Should a warship operate with the requisite amount of onboard power, it could potentially fire multiple laser interceptors at one time at the speed of light.
The Navy is now rapidly developing and testing several promising ship-fired laser technologies, and warships are being built and adapted to accommodate the space, weight, and power requirements needed to support lasers. A recently released Navy report explained that an Arleigh-Burke-class destroyer fired the promising HELIOS laser weapon, the High Energy Laser and Integrated Optical Dazzler and Surveillance weapon.
Part of this effort involves an ongoing Missile Defense Agency effort to “power-scale” laser weapons to the point where they can be fired from warships into space to, as one MDA official told Warrior a few years back, “burn a hole in the metal” of an enemy ICBM.
Non-Kinetic Defenses
The Navy has not paused or stopped with “kinetic” or explosive defenses intended to fire missiles to destroy incoming ballistic missiles. There are challenges with a purely kinetic approach, particularly in responding simultaneously to a salvo of missiles.
Even if a threat track can be established on incoming ballistic missiles, there may not be enough ship-fired interceptors to fire at one time, a scenario leaving holes, gaps and vulnerabilities in a defensive envelope. The sea service is quite aware of this. It has continued to fast-track a multi-domain collection of both kinetic and non-kinetic ship defenses in position to address the widest possible threat scenario.
These efforts have several key areas of promise, including the rapid integration of upgraded electronic warfare (EW) systems engineered to jam or simply derail the guidance systems of attacking enemy missiles. Some of the latest ship-integrated EW systems incorporate AI technologies that are increasingly capable of deconflicting a crowded electromagnetic spectrum to pinpoint and jam the necessary threat. Years ago, former Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Greenert famously said whoever controls the “electromagnetic spectrum” in warfare will be best positioned to prevail.
The Navy seems conscious of this and has, in recent years, been arming its warships and destroyers with a cutting edge EW system called SEWIP Block III, Surface Electronic Warfare Improvement Program. The latest variant, Block III, can operate on a broader range of frequencies and track a broader scope of threats at greater ranges. EW could prove particularly critical in a salvo kind of ballistic missile attack as it could jam multiple signals simultaneously. The intent with Northrop Grumman’s SEWIP is to track multiple “line-of-bearings” at one time to recognize and disable the electronic guidance and targeting systems built into enemy missiles
Kinetic & Non-Kinetic
Given this, the Navy continues to upgrade an integrated kinetic and non-kinetic suite of layered ship defenses positioned to provide sensitive land and sea targets with a new generation of protection. Finally, as part of this layered protection, the rapid arrival of Medium and Low-Earth Orbit satellites continues to vastly improve threat tracking and networking connectivity due to growing multi-domain kinds of real-time data sharing.
PACIFIC OCEAN (July 30, 2009) During exercise Stellar Avenger, the Aegis-class destroyer USS Hopper (DDG 70) launches a standard missile (SM) 3 Blk IA, successfully intercepting a sub-scale short range ballistic missile, launched from the Kauai Test Facility, Pacific Missile Range Facility (PMRF), Barking Sans, Kauai. This was the 19th successful intercept in 23 at-sea firings, for the Aegis BMD program, including the February 2008 destruction of a malfunctioning satellite above the earthÕs atmosphere. (U.S. Navy photo/Released).
Senior Pentagon officials say the most critical element of ballistic missile defense is the need to see the threat as early in its trajectory as possible. This affords the widest possible intercept window for ship commanders seeking to use an optimal responsive countermeasure.
It seems the overall intent would be to use an integrated collection of space, air, and surface sensors and ground-and-sea-based interceptors to “blanket” areas with defensive capabilities, thus creating a layered system best positioned to intercept attacks.
About the Author: Kris Osborn
Kris Osborn is the Military Technology Editor of 19FortyFive and 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.
