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2014-03-01

Vital role of missile defense systems

The stakes are high - countries must be able to detect a missile launch, track an incoming missile or warhead, and then intercept it. Ballistic missiles have become a serious threat to international security.

Missiles are fast, travelling 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.

There are several overlapping systems to stop missile attacks.

STSS-D satellites

Stopping a missile attack begins with detecting a launch. Space-tracking and surveillance system-demonstrator (STSS-D) satellites plays an important role in this.

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, and provide “launch on remote” cueing information to US Navy ship defenses before the ship itself acquired the target.

The Raytheon-built sensors on STSS-D satellites can spot multiple missile launches and beam the information to ships and interceptors.

Sea-based X-Band Radar (SBX)

Early warnings also come from the SBX, a nine-story-high radar mounted on a converted oil drilling platform. It is the world’s largest X-band radar.

The SBX platform that it sits on stands more than 250 feet high and displaces more than 50,000 tons. It consists of a semi-submersible oil production platform topped with the XBR.

XBR is the primary payload on the semi-submersible platform supporting the Ground-Based Midcourse Defense phase of the Missile Defense Agency Ballistic Missile Defense System.

SBX’s floating platform, a modified oil-drilling vessel, was designed for exceptional stability in high winds and storms. Measuring 240 feet wide and 390 feet long, the vessel includes a power plant, bridge and control rooms, living quarters, storage areas, and enough floor space and infrastructure to support the X-band Radar.

The X-band Radar itself, which sits on top of the floating platform, is the largest, most sophisticated phased array, electro-mechanically steered X-band radar in the world.

The SBX component was developed under the direction of the Boeing Company.

AN/TPY-2 radar

The AN/TPY-2 radar, a mobile radar mounted on a semi truck chassis, provides warning from sites on land. The first step in defeating a ballistic missile that has been fired is “seeing” it. And that’s where Raytheon’s 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 threats and non-threats.

Depending on the needs of the warfighter, 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.

JLENS

Raytheon also makes airborne equipment that can detect missile launches, including airborne infrared sensors and the joint land attack cruise missile defense elevator netted sensor system (JLENS), a radar system carried by tethered airships.

JLENS, an affordable elevated, persistent over-the-horizon sensor system uses a powerful integrated radar system to detect, track and target a variety of threats. This capability better enables commanders to defend against threats including hostile cruise missiles, low-flying manned and unmanned aircraft, tactical ballistic missiles, large caliber rockets, and moving surface vehicles such as boats, SCUD-launchers, automobiles, and tanks.

A JLENS system, referred to as an orbit, consists of two tethered, 74-metre helium-filled aerostats connected to mobile mooring stations and a communications and processing groups. The aerostats fly as high as 10,000 feet above sea level and can remain aloft and operational for up to 30 days. One aerostat carries a surveillance radar with 360-degree surveillance capability; the other aerostat carries a fire control radar.

Upgraded Early Warning Radars

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.

Interception

The United States and its allies use overlapping layers of long-range, mid-range and short-range interceptors to shoot down missiles and incoming warheads at a variety of altitudes.

Aegis

The Lockheed Martin-developed Aegis Combat System is the world’s premier naval surface defense system and is the foundation for Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense. Aegis can simultaneously attack land targets, submarines, and surface ships while automatically implementing defenses to protect the fleet against aircraft and missiles.

The Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) system is the primary sea-based component of the US missile defense system.

The central component of the Lockheed Martin-developed Aegis Combat System is the SPY-1 radar, the most widely fielded naval phased array radar in the world. The Aegis system and SPY-1 radar provide the US and allied nations with advanced surveillance, anti-air warfare and missile defense capabilities.

Aegis is also the weapon system of choice for the navies of Australia, Japan, Norway, the Republic of Korea and Spain. The 100 Aegis-equipped ships in service around the globe have many years of at-sea operational experience and have launched more than 3,800 missiles in tests and real-world operations.

Aegis BMD uses the mobility of Aegis-equipped cruisers and destroyers to permit intercepts during the ascent, midcourse and descent phases, as well as providing surveillance support to other elements of the Ballistic Missile Defense System (BMDS).

Currently, 27 Aegis BMD-equipped warships have the certified capability to engage ballistic missiles and perform long-range surveillance and tracking missions, as well as an additional four ships in the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force. The US Navy plans to procure seven new Aegis-equipped destroyers, and has also identified one additional Aegis Ashore system for modification to perform ballistic missile defense.

Aegis BMD-equipped ships use hit-to-kill technology to intercept and destroy short- and medium-range ballistic missiles. Additionally, Aegis BMD-equipped ships provide surveillance and tracking of intercontinental ballistic missiles and work with other BMDS elements to provide advance warning for the defense of the nation, deployed US forces and allies.

The current Aegis configurations enable the Missile Defense Agency and US Navy to defeat more sophisticated ballistic missile threats. The BMD signal processor is a commercial-off-the-shelf adjunct signal processor using open architecture standards. The configuration also includes an open architecture BMD computing suite that improves overall system capabilities and enables future insertion of additional off-the-shelf products, third-party components, and turn-key solutions.

The Aegis BMD 4.0.2 configuration enables the Navy to quickly defeat sophisticated ballistic missile threats by integrating sensors from space, land and sea for persistent and reliable detection.

The next planned BMD evolution will combine air defense and missile defense functionality into a single integrated air and missile defense system.

Standard Missile-3

The Standard Missile-3 releases a small, non-explosive “kill warhead” that smashes into missiles in space. The SM-3 is a defensive weapon used by the US Navy to destroy short- to intermediate-range ballistic missiles. The SM-3 destroys incoming ballistic missile threats by colliding with them, a concept sometimes described as “hitting a bullet with a bullet.” The impact is the equivalent of a 10-ton truck traveling at 600 mph.

The US is developing a land-based version of Aegis that can be deployed in Eastern Europe. Raytheon is also developing advanced versions of the SM-3.

Raytheon is also expanding the capabilities of its sea-based Standard Missile-6 to defend against ballistic missiles in the last phase of their flight. Deployed on cruisers and destroyers, SM-6 will provide joint force and strike force commanders fleet air defense against fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles, and land-attack anti-ship cruise missiles in flight, over sea and land.

SM-6 has also been selected to fulfill the US Navy’s sea-based terminal role and will provide defense against ballistic missiles in their terminal phase of flight, succeeding the SM-2 Blk IV missile. The initial version of the SBT is to enter service around 2015, with a subsequent version to enter service around 2018.

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