Independent Working Group Report: Missile Defense, the Space Relationship, and the Twenty-First Century. »»
May 23, 2012
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Aegis Ship-Based BMD
| Country: | USA |
|---|---|
| Basing: | Sea |
Details
Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense (Aegis BMD) will provide an efficient and highly mobile sea-based defense against short- and medium-range ballistic missiles in their midcourse phase.
The system will integrate the U.S. Navy’s existing fleet of Aegis cruisers (Ticonderoga class) and Aegis destroyers (Arleigh Burke class) with the Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) interceptor currently under development. The system will allow the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) to move its defense capabilities close to enemy launch sites, thus providing a critical “layer” to the broader Ballistic Missile Defense System.
At present, each Aegis cruiser and destroyer is outfitted with the Aegis Weapon System—the heart of which is the AN/SPY-1 radar system. AN/SPY-1 sends out beams of electromagnetic energy in all directions, thus allowing Aegis ships to track up to 100 targets simultaneously, while still retaining the ability to counter other air, surface, and submarine threats. AN/SPY-1 will be able to detect ballistic missiles as they rise above the horizon.
Once a hostile missile has been detected, Aegis BMD will launch its Standard Missile-3 interceptor from its MK41 Vertical Launching System (currently deployed on Aegis cruisers and destroyers). An evolution of the SM-2 Block IV interceptor, the SM-3 is a hit-to-kill missile comprised of a three-stage booster with a kill vehicle. As the SM-3 burns through its three stages, its GPS-Aided Inertial Navigation System will set it on an intercept trajectory with the hostile missile. SM-3 will also receive target updates from the Aegis destroyer.
Once close enough to the ballistic missile, the SM-3 will fire its kill vehicle, the Kinetic Warhead (KW), from its nosecone. The KW will immediately begin to search for its target. It will acquire the ballistic missile using a high-resolution seeker, and maintain an accurate trajectory using its internal navigational system. As it closes on its target, the KW will identify the missile’s payload, and shift its aimpoint to ensure a lethal hit. When the KW finally slams into the enemy warhead, the kinetic energy of the high velocity impact will ensure complete destruction of the threat.
Since 1999, MDA has conducted five SM-3 flight tests. Four have been successful. The most recent test was on December 11, 2003, when a SM-3 from the Aegis cruiser USS Lake Erie tracked, targeted, and destroyed a short-range target missile launched from the Pacific Missile Range Facility in Kauai, Hawaii. Impact occurred at an altitude of 137 kilometers and a closing speed of approximately 3.7 kilometers per second. The entire operation, from detection to destruction, took four minutes.
President George W. Bush recently called on MDA to deploy a preliminary defense shield—including sea-based assets. In September 2004, the Navy will deploy an Aegis destroyer in the Sea of Japan capable of detecting and tracking missile launches from North Korea and China. In the event of a hostile launch, the destroyer will be able to transmit data to ten ground-based interceptors located in Fort Greely in Alaska and Vandenberg Air Force Base in California (also scheduled for deployment in September 2004).
In 2005, the first fully operational Aegis BMD system will be deployed on an Aegis destroyer. MDA will conduct rigorous tests, using this initial deployment to integrate the AN/SPY-1 with SM-3 and improve the accuracy of the interceptor. In 2006, the Navy will deploy nine Aegis ships outfitted with SM-3 missiles and configured to carry out ballistic missile defense operations from almost anywhere in the world.
During this initial deployment phase, Aegis BMD will provide a cost effective means of countering emerging threats from rogue nations and terrorists. The United States has already invested $50 billion in its cruisers and destroyers alone, and the additional cost of outfitting these ships with SM-3s is relatively small compared with that of developing new air-based, land-based, and space-based systems. Although the Navy will eventually need more ships over time to handle its regular duties, in the interim Aegis BMD will serve as an excellent stopgap measure.
MDA’s long-term goal is to transform Aegis BMD into a comprehensive missile defense system capable of destroying intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), possibly in their boost phase. As MDA improves its layered missile defense system, Aegis BMD will be able to integrate its tracking system with other new BMD tracking systems such as Space Based Infrared System-High (SBIRS-High) satellites, the Space Tracking and Surveillance System (STSS), or the Sea-Based X-Band Radar (SBX). Although many consider the SM-3 too slow to intercept ICBMs, some believe that these enhanced detection and tracking capabilities will allow Aegis BMD to launch its interceptors earlier, thus allowing the SM-3s to reach long-range targets.
MDA and the Navy are also considering the development of a larger and faster interceptor missile.
Sources
Arms Control Association.
England, Gordon R. Remarks at the National Missile Defense Conference. Ronald Reagan Center, Washington, D.C., 22 March 2004.
Erwin, Sandra I. “Navy Prepares to Put Aegis Ships ‘On Alert.’” National Defense Magazine, March 2004.
GlobalSecurity.org.
Missile Defense Agency.
Raytheon Company.
Selinger, Marc. “Aegis on Tract for 2004 Missile Defense, Company Says.” Aerospace Daily, 13 January 2004.
U.S. Department of Defense. “Aegis Miss Test Successful.” Press Release 938-03, 11 December 2003.
Congressman Duncan Hunter Letter to President Calls for Immediate Programmatic Additions to Missile Defenses
Congressman Duncan Hunter (R-CA), Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, yesterday sent an important letter to President George Bush calling for immediate programmatic additions to U.S. missile defenses. Such systems, he stated, should be “capable of addressing the full range of North Korean missile-based threats to the United States, our deployed forces, and our allies.” First and foremost, the U.S. must “accelerate further the schedule for fielding Aegis ballistic missile defense capabilities,” either solely Standard Missile-3 interceptors or an appropriate combination of both SM-2 and SM-3 interceptors. Second, the U.S. must “maintain an optimal air defense capability on the peninsula” by deploying sufficient numbers of ground-based Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) systems. Third, the U.S. must “accelerate the deployment of intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities,” focusing on Northeast Asia. Congressman Hunter offered to serve as an advocate in Congress for any reprogramming requests submitted by the White House to carry out these critical national security objectives.
The Congressman’s recommendations are similar to those put forth by the Independent Working Group in its recent report, Missile Defense, the Space Relationship, and the Twenty-First Century, which strongly advocates the expansion of sea-based missile defenses, as well as the strengthening of missile defense collaboration with vital allies such as Japan.
Full text of Duncan Hunter letter to President Bush:
» More stories on: Policy, North Korea, Japan
» Missile system details for: Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3), Aegis Ship-Based BMD
Aegis BMD Gains Fleet Certification
The U.S. Navy and the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) have certified the latest version of the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) weapon system for tactical deployment. The upgraded system, known as Aegis BMD 3.6 and carrying the Standard Missile-3 Block IA interceptor missile, enhances the ballistic missile defense capabilities of the current fleet of Aegis destroyers and cruisers. The new system was most recently tested on June 22, 2006, when it successfully destroyed a separating target launched atop a three-stage medium-range ballistic missile over the Pacific Ocean. The test marked the seventh time (out of eight attempts) that MDA had successfully shot down a target missile with a ship-launched interceptor, and the second time that Aegis had successfully intercepted a separating warhead.
» More stories on: Policy, Sea-Based Systems
» Missile system details for: Aegis Ship-Based BMD
Cooper and Pfaltzgraff on Need for Global, Multi-layered Missile Defense
Deployment of a multi-layered missile defense, including space-based systems, should be an urgent U.S. priority, argues Ambassador Henry F. Cooper and Dr. Robert Pfaltzgraff, in the August 28 edition of The Wall Street Journal. Dr. Pfaltzgraff is president of the Institute of Foreign Policy Analysis (IFPA) and Shelby Cullom Davis Professor of International Security Studies at Tufts University. Ambassador Cooper was the former director of the Strategic Defense Initiative and chief U.S. negotiator to the Geneva Space and Defense Talks, and is currently chairman of High Frontier, a missile defense advocacy group. Both participated in the Independent Working Group, which recently released the report Missile Defense, the Space Relationship and the 21st Century.
The authors write: “We should make it virtually impossible for any adversary—rogue states, non-state actors and larger strategic competitors—to influence U.S. decisions, or the course of regional conflicts, by threatening to launch missiles with nuclear weapons against the U.S., its deployed forces or its allies.” The U.S. needs a “continuously ready, global, multilayered system to provide multiple shots at attacking missiles and their warheads in all their phases of flight.” Such defenses would make a missile attack against the U.S. an expensive endeavor, and therefore less attractive for enemies to buy the technologies to overcome them. “The ABM Treaty era showed that it is the absence of defenses, rather than their presence, that encourages the development of offensive technologies.” To accomplish this, the U.S. should complete the ground-based sites in Alaska and California but build no additional ground-based sites. Limited resources would be better spent deploying more effective sea- and space-based missile defense components.
The U.S. has already invested $80 billion in over 80 Aegis-equipped warships armed with Standard Missile-3 interceptors, which provide an effective defense against cruise missiles. An additional investment of $100 million per ship, they write, would enable these flexible platforms to shoot down ballistic missiles, and thus provide an effective near-term defense capability. For a long-term global defense, the U.S. should invest in space-based systems that can intercept ballistic missiles in all phases of flight. The technology already exists in the form of Brilliant Pebbles, a space-based system developed during the Reagan and first Bush administrations but never completed. Brilliant Pebbles consists of a constellation of lightweight satellites that would release watermelon-sized interceptors into the path of the oncoming missiles and destroy them by impact. Cooper and Pfaltzgraff point out that all key technologies for Brilliant Pebbles were proven by the mid-1990s, and that the more advanced technology of today would provide such a system with even greater capabilities.
The full text:
» More stories on: Analysis, Policy
» Missile system details for: Aegis Ship-Based BMD, Brilliant Pebbles
Japan Launches Sixth Aegis Warship
Japan today launched its sixth Aegis destroyer, the Ashigara, which will be fitted with anti-missile capabilities next year. The AFP reports that the Ashigara, the heaviest of Japan’s Aegis destroyers, was put to sea from the southwestern port city of Nagasaki amid fears over a possible North Korean missile attack. The Japanese warship will be equipped with U.S.-designed Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) interceptors throughout next year, according to a spokesman for the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Forces. The Ashigara joins the U.S.S. Shiloh guided-missile cruiser, the first U.S. warship to be deployed in Japan with the capability to shoot down short- and medium-range missiles, which arrived yesterday at the U.S. naval base of Yokosuka south of Tokyo.
» More stories on: Allies, Deployment, Japan
» Missile system details for: Aegis Ship-Based BMD, Japanese Ballistic Missile Defense
First Aegis Cruiser Arrives in Japan
The U.S.S. Shiloh, the first missile defense-capable ship to be deployed in Japan, arrived in the port of Yokosuka today. The Shiloh is armed with the Aegis combat system, including Standard Missile-3 interceptors capable of shooting down medium-range ballistic missiles in mid-flight. Its deployment is a symbolic step in a joint U.S.-Japanese missile defense alliance to shield Japan and the region from missile attack. A second line of defense is to commence in September, when the U.S. military will begin installing Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) interceptors at its Kadena Air Base on the southern Japanese island of Okinawa. North Korea’s official Rodong Sinmun newspaper immediately condemned the U.S.-Japanese deployment, stating that “the scheme of the U.S. war-thirsty quarters to deploy dense MD [missile defense] networks in the U.S. mainland, Japan, and the Pacific reveals their wild ambition to rule the world by strength.”
» More stories on: Allies, Deployment, Japan
» Missile system details for: Aegis Ship-Based BMD, Japanese Ballistic Missile Defense
U.S. to Accelerate Aegis Deployment in Pacific
The Pentagon plans to double its number of Aegis-equipped warships in the Pacific from three to six by the end of 2006, reports Reuters. The move was announced today by Rear Admiral Alan Hicks, program manager for the Aegis ballistic missile defense program. All three new warships will carry the specialized Aegis combat system, as well as Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) interceptor missiles. The UPI notes that Raytheon on Wednesday received a $266 million contract to speed up deployment of the SM-3. The interceptors are capable of shooting down short- and medium-range North Korean missiles, although they are not capable of destroying longer-range threats such as the Taep’o-dong 2. The U.S. and Japan, however, are co-developing an advanced model interceptor, dubbed SM-3 Block 2 and scheduled for deployment by 2015, which will be able to defend against these longer-range missiles.
» More stories on: Deployment, North Korea, Sea-Based Systems
» Missile system details for: Aegis Ship-Based BMD
New Control System for SM-3 Successfully Tested
Raytheon and ATK successfully tested a new steering control system for the ship-launched Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) interceptor missile, reports the UPI. The SM-3 is deployed aboard Aegis-equipped cruisers and destroyers where it defends against short- and medium-range ballistic missiles. The control system, known as the Solid Divert and Attitude Control System (SDACS), was tested in a vacuum chamber facility in Maryland and involved a full pulse burn that simulated the SM-3 closing on a target. The advanced version of the SDACS adds two more individual propellant burn periods, allowing for increased thrust and maneuvering capability.
» More stories on: Sea-Based Systems, Testing - American
» Missile system details for: Aegis Ship-Based BMD
Japan Scheduled to Deploy Six Aegis Ships by 2008
Japan plans to deploy a total of six Aegis-quipped warships by the spring of 2008, reports Kyodo. Japan’s Maritime Self-Defense Force has already deployed four Aegis destroyers, the Kongou and Choukai, both based in Sasebo, the Myoukou in Maizuru, Kyoto Prefecture, and the Kirishima in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture. A fifth warship, the Atago, is to be commissioned next spring and deployed at Maizuru. A sixth Aegis destroyer is under construction in Nagasaki, and will be deployed at Sasebo after its completion in the spring of 2008. Five of the six Aegis warships will be deployed along the Sea of Japan to provide a defensive shield against the threat of ballistic missile attack from North Korea. All of Japan’s Aegis warships are currently equipped with SM-2 interceptors, although the MSDF is planning to upgrade them to SM-3 interceptors, capable of hitting ballistic missiles at a far higher altitude.
» More stories on: Allies, Japan, Sea-Based Systems
» Missile system details for: Aegis Ship-Based BMD, Japanese Ballistic Missile Defense
Lockheed Martin to Build Aegis Systems for Australia
The U.S. Navy has awarded Lockheed Martin an $85 million contract to produce three Aegis Weapons Systems for Australia’s Air Warfare Destroyer program, according to a press release issued today. In June 2004, the U.S. and Australia signed a memorandum of understanding outlining Australia’s future cooperation in missile defense, which included the Aegis system as well as the long-range radar project known as DUNDEE. The first Air Warfare Destroyer is scheduled to enter service with the Royal Australian Navy in 2013.
» More stories on: Allies, Australia
» Missile system details for: Aegis Ship-Based BMD
South Korea Requests 48 SM-2 Block IIIB Standard Missiles
South Korea intends to purchase 48 Standard Missile-2 (SM-2) Block IIIB interceptor missiles from the U.S. for an estimated cost of $111 million. The Defense Security Cooperation Agency has already notified Congress of the potential sale. South Korea would deploy the SM-2s aboard its new KDX-III Aegis destroyer, which has already been integrated with the SM-2 Block IIIA and would have no difficulty absorbing the new interceptors.
» More stories on: Allies, South Korea
» Missile system details for: Aegis Ship-Based BMD
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