Raytheon eyes RAN requirements

Aegis, ESSM and the Standard SM-2 - the RAN's air warfare capability is based on a proven mix of products; and Raytheon can offer some enhancements as well.
Almost the entire armoury of weapons aboard RAN surface combatants is provided by a single company: Raytheon.

Raytheon provides the Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile (ESSM), SM-1 and SM-2 area air defence missiles and Phalanx Block 1A Close-In Weapon System (CIWS) which arm the RAN's Anzac and FFG frigates. It is starting to examine the Navy's evolving armament needs for the Air Warfare Destroyers as well as the legacy platforms, and has identified a number of opportunities to fill our in the RAN's future order of battle.

At a briefing to Australian journalists during the Pacific 2006 show in Sydney earlier this year, Raytheon said the starting point for its analysis of customer weapons requirements has always been the evolving threat environment. The range, speed, manoeuvrability and lethality of ship- and air-launched anti-ship missiles faced by the RAN is increasing. The Russians and Indians, in particular, are developing new families of weapons for which they are seeking export customers around the world.

At the same time new threats are emerging from opposite ends of the technology spectrum: ballistic missiles, on the one hand, and fast attack boats manned by suicide bombers on the other. A modern surface combatant needs to be able to provide a layered defence against at least part of that spectrum - and the most capable surface combatants, such as the AWDs, need to be able to defend themselves, and others, against all of them, if possible.

The RAN's current hard kill inventory (Nulka isn't a feature of this article) consists of Phalanx Block 1A as a close-in defence against missiles (even artillery shells), aircraft and fast attack boats; ESSM as a point defence system against aircraft and some missiles; SM-1 on legacy FFGs to provide a longer-range point and small-area defence capability against aircraft; and the SM-2, which will provide upgraded FFGs with a genuine area air defence capability.

Where are the gaps and what are the RAN's future requirements? If a gap could be said to exist, it probably lies between Phalanx and ESSM. And the RAN's future requirements certainly embrace area air defence and could also extend to Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) defence, depending on the Australian government's view of regional threats down the track. In the meantime, the RAN has left its options open by ordering the Aegis air defence system and specifying an open growth path towards the adoption of an ABM capability aboard its AWDs.

The Phalanx system seems set to remain in RAN service for some time, though Australia has not committed to upgrading its Block 1A weapons to Block 1B standard - Raytheon is recommending the RAN acquire Block 1B for the AWDs, which includes an IR tracker to detect low-observable targets such as missiles, rubber boats and the like. The US Navy alone currently fields some 260 systems and is upgrading all of these to Block 1B standard. Periodic upgrade since it entered service during the early 1980s ensured Phalanx 1B can still engage supersonic and highly agile anti-ship missiles as well as 155mm artillery shells, small boats and jet skis travelling at speeds as high as 50-80kts and even swimmers.

However, Phalanx has an inherently limited range. If an additional layer of protection is required between the Phalanx and ESSM capabilities, Raytheon is proposing a hybrid solution, the SeaRAM, comprising an 11-cell Rolling Airframe Missile (RAM) launcher combined with the proven Phalanx 1B sensor suite.

The SeaRAM is a self-contained solution suitable for a low-impact retrofit to existing platforms; the baseline RAM system comprises simply the 11-cell launcher mounted on a suitable spot on the superstructure and integrated with the ship's existing sensor suite. No additional fire control illuminators are required.

The RAM's much longer range enables it to engage aircraft and missiles - and surface craft also - much further out. It has dual RF/IR guidance or IR all-the-way for non-emitting targets and is a fire and forget weapon.

The RAN has acknowledged the value of such a weapon as a Very Short Range Air Defence (VSRAD) system and had contemplated acquiring such a weapon as part of the Anzac Anti-Ship Missile Defence (ASMD) upgrade. It was widely believed MBDA's SADRAL IR-guided missile was the preferred solution, but in the event no VSRAD system was deemed necessary for the Anzacs.

This isn't necessarily the case with the RAN's planned amphibious landing ships (LHD), which will be high-value assets and therefore requiring some level of self-defence. Raytheon believes RAM provides the right blend of capabilities required for protection against both air and terrorist surface threats. If the LHDs are equipped with a sensor fit and command and control system able to integrate and fuse track data under combat conditions, RAM could be integrated quite easily.

The ESSM is now a standard fit across the surface fleet: quad-packed into 8-cell Mk41 launchers, it provides each RAN surface combatant with 32 rounds. ESSM is produced by a 10-nation consortium led by Raytheon; BAE Systems in Adelaide designed and now manufactures the missile's dorsal and tail fins and thrust vector control system. The weapon will also be part of the baseline fit on the AWDs, also quad-packed. The RAN was supposed to be the first Navy to fire a live ESSM at sea, from HMAS Warramunga; in the event USS Shoup beat her to it. But successful firings have also now been undertaken from German, Dutch and Canadian frigates.

The RAN's decision to replace its ageing SM-1 missiles, which are no longer in production and so becoming more difficult to support, with SM-2 missiles, provides a major enhancement in the capability of the FFG frigates.

The SM-2 Block IIIA/B has a monopulse, solid-state semi-active radar seeker with a data to enable mid-course correction commands as well as an inertial guidance system. It has an 'extreme low altitude' capability against anti-ship cruise missiles, the company says, can cope also with high-altitude cruise missiles, including those in the terminal dive phase of their attack, and has high levels of ECCM. The Block IIIB variant also has IR guidance.

At present the SM-2 is the baseline fit for the AWDs as well - unless and until the Australian government requires an ABM capability the SM-3 isn't on the RAN's shopping list.

The SM-3 Block 1A is already at sea and has proven itself in a number of trials against ballistic missile-type targets under a range of scenarios. If the RAN were to order the SM-3 the first version compatible with the AWD's Mk41 launchers will be the Block II which will have a thicker airframe, significant range and velocity enhancements and the improved kinetic energy warhead seeker of the Block 1B which provides increased detection ranges. The Block IIA will have a further enhanced warhead.

The USA and Japan are developing the Block II variant jointly - hence the requirement for it to be compatible with the Mk41 launchers of Japan's Kongo-class destroyers. At the time of ADM's briefing it wasn't certain whether there would be separate assembly lines in Japan and the USA, but there will certainly be dual sourcing of missile components.

The most intriguing aspect of the AWD missile fit is whether or not the ship will be armed with Raytheon's SM-6 missile. This weapon, described by Raytheon as an 'extended range active missile' will enter service in the US Navy at the end of this decade. It uses the radome, airframe, warhead, rocket motor and booster of the current SM-2/3 family, with the active RF seeker of the company's AIM-120C AMRAAM medium-range air-air missile. The only developmental item in the SM-6 is the new packaging of the proven AMRAAM guidance section.

The active guidance system of the SM-6 has two critical benefits: it provides for the first time an over-the-horizon capability, both in the open sea and in hilly terrain along the littoral; and because the active seeker can see beyond the range of target illuminators, it provides a significant increase in effective engagement range. However, SM-6 doesn't provide an ABM capability. Raytheon believes it unlikely that an operator would seek to load out a destroyer with ESSM, SM-2, SM-6 and SM-3 simultaneously - the SM-3 is a specialised ABM weapon and so would probably be confined to ships assigned specifically to the ABM role.

Will the RAN adopt the SM-6? That probably depends on whether its AWDs are required to have an ABM capability. Given that the AWD may not have as many Mk41 launch cells as the Flight 2 Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, the fewer different missile types it carries the greater its ability to sustain an engagement against any one type of threat.

It wouldn't be hard to imagine a ty
By Gregor Ferguson Adelaide