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2015-06-14

STING OF THE BEE SM-6 continues lethal legacy

The military called it Operation Bumblebee: a secret program to develop a weapon that - like the insect - could take off vertically, change directions instantly and deliver a painful sting.

Born in the years after World War II, the US Navy program aimed to create a missile that could defend warships against new weapons like fast-moving fighter jets and the missiles they carried.

In 2013, the US defense officials celebrated the product of that effort, the Standard Missile, which has evolved from defending ships to protecting entire countries as part of the United States’ integrated air and missile defense system.

The Standard Missile’s history begins in the 1940s, when US Navy leaders found themselves grappling with a new problem: missiles launched from airplanes.

“The question was: could the ships defend themselves?” said retired Vice Adm. Rod Rempt. “We found we needed much faster missiles and capabilities than the guns that were prevalent during WWII.”

What the Navy needed was a supersonic, guided missile complete with new kinds of propulsion and control. Success was, even to avid believers, a long shot.

Big brother

Operation Bumblebee engineers eventually produced three missiles: the Talos, Terrier, and Tartar.

Talos was the ‘big brother’ of the three, weighing nearly four tons. It was designed to take out big threats like Soviet bombers. However, it was large and expensive, and many of the smaller ships couldn’t carry Talos.

With a cutting-edge (for its time) radar homing guidance system, the smaller Terrier saw wide use by the Navy post-WWII.

Tartar was the lightest-weight system and was designed to engage targets at close range.

The first successful launch of a Terrier missile from the USS Mississippi in 1953 is broadly considered the event when the Standard Missile family’s story truly began.

Evolved

Over the decades the missile family has evolved:

Standard Missile 1 -Nicknamed “Home All The Way,” the SM-1 protected the US fleet against low-flying, anti-ship missiles. Combining high performance and short reaction time, the missile “homed”’ in on a target throughout its flight. Several US allies still use it today.

Standard Missile-2 - The SM-2 was the first variant that could acquire a target after launch, and that ability doubled its range and altitude. Today it is the leading fleet-area air defense weapon and is used by the U.S. and allied nations.

Standard Missile-3 - The SM-3 is the only missile in existence today that can be launched from a ship, blast into space, and take out short- to intermediate-range ballistic missiles. The SM-3 uses a non-explosive warhead – a concept often described as “hitting a bullet with a bullet.” Both the US and Japanese navies have deployed it on ships.

Standard Missile-6 - The SM-6 is a new, over-the-horizon air defense weapon. In 2015 it will take on a new role defending against ballistic missile threats. The SM-6 uses both active and semiactive guidance modes and advanced fuzing techniques. It incorporates the advanced signal processing and guidance control capabilities from Raytheon’s Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile.

Flawless tests

Raytheon recently delivered the first full-rate production round of the Standard Missile-6 (SM-6) to the US Navy after a flawless series of flight tests in 2014. The move to full-rate production is a key milestone that demonstrates the program’s maturity. Here are six things you should know about this new air and missile defense interceptor.

The most recent delivery of SM-6 to the US Navy is the first of many. Commanders around the globe want as many of these missiles as they can get their hands on, and the Navy plans to purchase 1,800.

The SM-6 provides fleet air defense against pretty much every threat: fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles and anti-ship cruise missiles in flight, both over sea and land.

The Arleigh-Burke class guided-missile destroyer USS John Paul Jones (DDG 53) launches a Standard Missile-6 during a live-fire test of the ship’s Aegis weapons system.

Later this year, the SM-6 will begin testing against incoming ballistic missiles, adding another layer of protection to the defensive umbrella provided by the SM-6’s cousin, the Standard Missile-3 (SM-3).

The SM-6’s eyes and brains are the same as the Raytheon-made Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM), the most advanced air-to-air weapon in the arsenal of the US Air Force, Navy and numerous allied nations. SM-6 embeds the AMRAAM’s battle tested and highly reliable seeker into the tried-and-true Standard Missile airframe. Like AMRAAM, the SM-6 can receive in-flight target updates.

With SM-6, the U.S. Navy quadruples the amount of defended space it can protect because sailors are able to launch at threats much sooner than ever before. U.S. Navy ships no longer have to “see” the threat with their own radars in order to destroy it.

Experience

Instead, they can rely on support from other sources, such as another ship in a better position or an airborne sensor like the JLENS. One JLENS orbit can provide the same 24/7 coverage for a 30-day period that five fixed-wing surveillance aircraft provide.

SM-6 is the product of decades of experience. The need for this type of defender was first identified in the years after World War II. Standard Missile technology has been perfected for more than 60 years and remains critical to the U.S. integrated air and missile defense system.

In addition to fleet defense, Raytheon’s Standard Missile-6 has been selected to fulfill the US Navy’s sea-based terminal role. From the era of Old Ironsides to today, no U.S. warship has ever been able to use its own weapons to accurately strike back at an attacker over the horizon.

Those days are over. US Navy had awarded Raytheon a $243 million contract for 89 Standard Missile-6 interceptors, moving the program from low-rate to full-rate production.

Launched from a US Navy ship, a Raytheon Standard Missile-6 uses AMRAAM seeker technology to take out “over-the-horizon” threats.

The transformational weapon gives the U.S. Navy something it never had before - a missile that doesn’t require the shooting ship’s radar to guide it throughout its flight.

New era

“The SM-6 is the most sophisticated fleet air defense weapon deployed in the world. Its introduction into service signals a new era of fleet defense. With SM-6, the U.S. Navy has basically quadrupled the amount of defended space it can protect because sailors are able to launch at a threat much sooner than ever before”, said Raytheon’s Standard Missile-6 program director.

“We have the best rocket scientists, engineers and innovators in the world. It’s true, and I never tire of saying it,” said Dr. Taylor Lawrence, president of Raytheon Missile Systems.

Stealing a page from the fighter pilot’s playbook, the Standard Missile-6’s eyes and brains are the same as the Raytheon-made AMRAAM, the most advanced air-to-air missile used by the US Air Force and Navy and dozens of allied nations.

SM-6 combines the AMRAAM’s ‘beyond visual range’ seeker and embeds it into the tried-and-true Standard Missile airframe.

Before SM-6, the U.S. Navy didn’t have a weapon that could engage flying targets outside the visual range of a ship’s radar. Guns were powerful, but it was difficult to hit fast-moving targets. That meant a speedy, aerial enemy was safe as long as it stayed below the horizon or behind terrain.

Like the AMRAAM, the SM-6 can receive target updates after launch. Shortly after it leaves the deck, it starts receiving uplinks with updated target information from other ships or airborne platforms via the shooting ship.

Full-rate production is a big step for a program built on big history. In the years after World War II, the US Navy sought to create a series of defensive weapons that could protect the fleet against the threats faced throughout the war.

More than sixty years later, the SM-6 represents the cutting-edge compilation of decades of best practices.

Raytheon’s SM-6 takes on three key missions: enhanced Anti-Air Warfare, over-the-horizon protection, and in 2015, terminal ballistic missile defense.

Enhanced anti-air warfare

Simply put, SM-6 gives warfighters a transformational fleet defense capability protecting ships and their sailors from aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles, and land-attack missiles, and anti-ship cruise missiles in flight. SM-6 can accomplish all of this over sea or land.

Over-the-horizon capability

When it comes to fleet protection, defending against threats that are ‘over-the-horizon’ is the holy grail, extending the defended area from fleet defense to area defense. SM-6 allows the US Navy to “shoot the shooter” before they can fire their missiles at troops ashore or sailors afloat.

Terminal ballistic missile defense

Similar to its close cousin, the Standard Missile-3, the SM-6 will take on a ballistic missile defense role in 2015, and when it does, it will be the only missile in the world to be capable of the three missions outlined above.

The missile is built in Raytheon’s new $75 million, 70,000 square-foot SM-3 and SM-6 all-up-round production facility at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Ala.

The SM-6 program has had a series of noteworthy milestones. In August, a SM-6 destroyed a cruise missile target as part of a test designed to verify the missile’s performance with its new AMRAAM processor.

The same month, the U.S. Navy fired two Standard Missile-6 interceptors from the USS Chancellorsville, successfully engaging two cruise missile targets in the missile’s first over-the-horizon test scenario at sea.

Full-rate production

Standard Missile-6 program has moved from low-rate to full-rate production, clearing the path for significantly increased production numbers and focus on further cost-reduction opportunities.

“SM-6 is proven against a broad range of advanced threats, which makes it very valuable to Combatant Commanders who need and want that flexibility,” said Mike Campisi, Standard Missile-6 senior program director. “Full-rate production allows us to significantly ramp up production and deliver to the U.S. Navy the quantities it needs to further increase operational effectiveness.”

The first full-rate production round was delivered to the U.S. Navy from Raytheon’s SM-6 and SM-3 all-up-round production facility at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Ala. Prior to final assembly, a majority of the SM-6’s section level assembly and testing development took place at Raytheon’s subsystem center factory in Tucson, Ariz., a Raytheon statement said.

The SM-6’s eyes and brains are the same as the Raytheon-made Advanced Medium-Range Air to Air Missile, or AMRAAM. SM-6 embeds the AMRAAM’s battle tested and highly reliable seeker into the tried-and-true Standard Missile airframe. Like AMRAAM, the SM-6 can receive in-flight target updates, Raytheon officials said.

Photo/Ref:

www.raytheon.com, www.navy.mil

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