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2014-12-01

MISSILE DEFENSE

Stopping a missile attack begins with detecting launch

Ballistic missiles have become a serious threat to international security. Missiles are fast, traveling up to 15,000 mph. They can cover long distances, with the most advanced missiles reaching into space and traveling over the North Pole to hit targets. Because they are expensive and can carry only small payloads, rogue countries are more likely to outfit them with weapons of mass destruction.

Countries must be able to detect a missile launch, track an incoming missile or warhead, and then intercept it. The United States and its allies have developed several overlapping systems to stop missile attacks.

Tracking and Discrimination

Stopping a missile attack begins with detecting a launch. Space-Tracking and Surveillance System-Demonstrator (STSS-D) satellites carrying built sensors can spot multiple missile launches and beam the information to ships and interceptors.

The Missile Defense Agency’s Space Tracking and Surveillance System-Demonstrator program is a research and development capability for the Ballistic Missile Defense System that can detect and track ballistic missiles and other cold objects in space.

STSS-D consists of two satellites carrying sensor payloads in a low-Earth orbit. Raytheon developed the sensor payloads for the two STSS satellites under contract to Northrop Grumman, prime contractor for the STSS-D program. The STSS-D payloads are able to detect infrared and visible light.

The STSS-D spacecraft demonstrate the value of space-based sensors to missile defense. Since they were launched in 2009, the STSS-D sensor payloads have demonstrated the ability to:

- Detect missile launches and track targets from boost phase into midcourse

- Acquire and track short range air-launched targets

- Track multiple targets simultaneously

- Communicate with missile defense command and control systems

- Provide “launch on remote” cueing information to U.S. Navy ship defenses before the ship itself acquired the target

Early warnings also come from the Sea-based X-Band Radar (SBX), a nine-story-high radar mounted on a converted oil drilling platform. The AN/TPY-2 radar, a mobile radar mounted on a semi truck chassis, provides warning from sites on land. The Air and Missile Defense Radar increases detection range and adds powerful discrimination accuracy, helping naval forces respond to airborne and ballistic missile threats.

Sea-Based X-Band Radar-1

The Sea-Based X-Band Radar-1 (SBX-1) constitutes a mid-course fire control radar based on a seagoing semi-submersible vessel. The platform was developed by Boeing, as part of the ground-based midcourse defence (GMD) component of the US Ballistic Missile Defence System (BMDS). The GMD intercepts incoming warheads.

The SBX vessel was transferred to the Military Sealift Command (MSC) in December 2011. MSC operates and maintains the vessel, while the Missile Defence Agency (MDA) is responsible for the x-band radar. The SBX will be assigned with a limited test support role from fiscal year 2013. On 23 March 2012, SBX-1 sailed from Pearl Harbor to the Pacific region, ahead of North Korea’s planned space launch.

In 2002, Boeing was awarded a $31m contract by MDA to oversee the development of a new sea-based radar system for its BMDS. In 2003, the US Government purchased a 50,000t semi-submersible seagoing platform from Norwegian company Moss Maritime for the integration of radar system.

The platform was modified at the Keppel AMFELS shipyard and the assembly and installation of the x-band radar on to the platform was completed in 2005 by Kiewit Offshore. The platform underwent additional alterations at the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard. In July 2005, the vessel was officially named as the Sea-Based X-Band Radar-1 (SBX-1) by the MDA. The SBX-1 underwent a series of sea trials and exercises in the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific Ocean, prior to its service entry.

Design and features

The twin-hulled vessel can withstand high winds and rigid sea conditions. It houses x-band radar, a bridge, control rooms, accommodation units, workspaces, storage spaces, a power generation area and a heli-deck.

The SBX-1 platform is equipped with a command, control and communications system, plus an in-flight interceptor communication system data terminal.

The platform has the capacity to hold supplies and fuel for 60 days. It also offers additional space for installation of new modules.

The vessel has a length of 389ft, beam of 238ft and a draft of 33ft. It can travel at a maximum speed of 9kt. It can accommodate a crew of 87, including officers, civilians, civil service mariners and contract mariners.

The SBX-1, integrated with the BMDS system, provides tracking information of incoming missiles and countermeasures discrimination for GMD interceptor missiles, in order to destroy the threat missile outside the Earth’s atmosphere. It also protects the US and its allied forces from potential missile attacks.

The radar performs cued search, precision tracking, object discrimination and missile kill assessment. The in-flight interceptor communication system data terminal transfers commands from the GMD fire control system to the interceptor missile during its engagement with the target missile.

X-Band Radar, or XBR

The x-band radar, or XBR, was designed, built and tested by Raytheon for Boeing, the prime contractor of the SBX-1 development. It is the most advanced electro-mechanically steered phased array x-band radar derived from the radar of the Aegis combat system.

The radar beam is formed by the 45,000 transmit/receive modules, mounted on an octagonal flat base. It can see an object similar to the size of a baseball at a range of 2,500 miles. About 69,632 multisectional circuits are used in the radar for transmitting, receiving and amplifying signals.

The 18,000lbs radome measures 103ft in height and 120ft in diameter. It is built with high-tech synthetic fabric material to withstand wind speeds of more than 130mph. Air pressure supports the flexible cover which surrounds the radar. The vessel is also installed with small rigid radomes. Onboard equipment is powered by six 3.6MW generators.

AN/TPY-2

The first step in defeating a ballistic missile that has been fired is ‘seeing’ it. And that’s where Raytheon’s Army Navy/Transportable Radar Surveillance, AN/TPY-2 X-Band radar comes in. A critical element in the Ballistic Missile Defense System, AN/TPY-2 continually searches the sky for ballistic missiles. Once it detects a missile, it acquires it, tracks it, and uses its powerful radar and complex computer algorithms to discriminate between the warhead and non-threats such as countermeasures.

The AN/TPY-2 radar can be deployed in two different modes. In forward-based mode, the radar is positioned near hostile territory, and acquires ballistic missiles in the boost (ascent) phase of flight, shortly after they are launched. It then tracks and discriminates the threat, and passes critical information required by decision makers to the Command and Control Battle Management network.

When the AN/TPY-2 radar is deployed in terminal mode, the radar’s job is to detect, acquire, track and discriminate ballistic missiles in the terminal (descent) phase of flight. The terminal-mode AN/TPY-2 also leads the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense ballistic missile defense system by guiding the THAAD missile to intercept a threat.

AN/TPY-2 has a record of flawless performance against all classes of ballistic missiles. In forward-based mode, it has proven capability against short-, medium and intermediate-range ballistic missiles. In terminal mode, AN/TPY-2 has demonstrated its ability to enable an intercept of short- and medium-range ballistic missiles.

Raytheon has delivered ten AN/TPY-2s to date, and is in the process of building two more for the U.S. customer, and two for international partners. These radars are an important step in the right direction to meeting the growing U.S. and international demand for an affordable, proven system that can stay ahead of the increasing ballistic missile threat.

Air and Missile Defense Radar

The Air and Missile Defense Radar is the Navy’s next generation integrated air and missile defense radar. It is currently planned to be deployed on the DDG-51 Flight III beginning in 2016.

The radar significantly enhances the ships’ abilities to detect air and surface targets as well as the ever-proliferating ballistic missile threats.

AMDR provides greater detection ranges and increased discrimination accuracy compared to the AN/SPY-1D(V) radar onboard today’s destroyers.

The system is built with individual ‘building blocks’ called Radar Modular Assemblies. Each RMA is a self-contained radar transmitter and receiver in a 2’x2’x2’ box. These RMAs stack together to fit the required array size of any ship, making AMDR the Navy’s first truly scalable radar.

This advanced radar comprises:

- S-band radar – a new, integrated air and missile defense radar

- X-band radar – a horizon-search radar based on existing technology

- The Radar Suite Controller (RSC) – a new component to manage radar resources and integrate with the ship’s combat management system

AMDR’s performance and reliability are a direct result of more than 10 years of investment in core technologies, leveraging development, testing and production of high-powered Gallium Nitride (GaN) semiconductors, distributed receiver exciters, and adaptive digital beamforming. AMDR’s GaN components cost 34 per cent less than Gallium Arsenide alternatives, deliver higher power density and efficiency, and have demonstrated meantime between failures at an impressive 100 million hours.

AMDR has a fully programmable, back-end radar controller built out of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) x86 processors. This programmability allows the system to adapt to emerging threats. The commercial nature of the x86 processors simplifies obsolescence replacement – as opposed to costly technical refresh/upgrades and associated downtime – savings that lower radar sustainment costs over each ship’s service life.

AMDR has an extremely high predicted operational availability due to the reliable GaN transmit/receive modules, the low mean-time-to-repair rate, and a very low number of Line Replaceable Units. Designed for maintainability, standard LRU replacement in the RMA can be accomplished in under six minutes requiring only two tools.

JLENS

Airplanes, drones and cruise missiles pose a significant threat to people, population centers, key infrastructure and to military. That’s where JLENS, a blimp-borne radar system made by Raytheon, comes in
.

JLENS, which is short for Joint Land Attack Cruise Missile Defense Elevated Netted Sensor System, is a system of two aerostats, or tethered airships, that float 10,000 feet in the air. The helium filled aerostats, each nearly as long as a football field, carry powerful radars that can protect a territory roughly the size of Texas from airborne threats.

JLENS provides 360-degrees of defensive radar coverage and can detect and track objects like missiles, and manned and unmanned aircraft from up to 340 miles away. JLENS can also remain aloft and operational for up to 30 days at a time. This potent combination of persistence and capability give defenders more time and more distance to identify potential threats, make critical decisions and to conduct crucial notifications.

JLENS allows the military to safeguard hundreds of miles of territory at a fraction of the cost of fixed wing aircraft, and it can integrate with defensive systems including Patriot, Standard Missile 6, Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile and National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System.

One JLENS system, known as an orbit, can provide the same 24/7 coverage for a 30-day period that 4-5 fixed wing surveillance aircraft.

Upgraded Early Warning Radar (UEWR)

The UEWR provides early detection and precise tracking of incoming ballistic missiles, as well as quick, accurate determination of threat versus non-threat objects. UEWR is a key sensor for the Missile Defense Agency’s Ballistic Missile Defense System, supporting the intercept of threatening ballistic missiles above the atmosphere and well away from their intended targets while concurrently performing the early warning mission.

Upgraded early warning radars are building-sized radars based in California, Alaska, the United Kingdom and Greenland. They and the AN/TPY-2 radar provide tracking information out to 3,000 miles.

Working together, these systems provide detailed information about a missile’s type, trajectory and possible target. They can also help identify a warhead if it is accompanied by decoys.

Ref/Photo: www.raytheon.com

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