F-22Raptor
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The U.S. Navy harbors many secrets that must be kept from America’s enemies, like where its submarines are operating or how it exploits intelligence from reconnaissance satellites. Some secrets, though, are hiding in plain sight. For instance, do you realize that many of the Navy’s surface combatants—its frigates, destroyers and cruisers—have almost no ability to engage hostile warships?
Unless you follow naval matters closely, you probably wouldn’t know that. There was a time when defeating enemy warships was the top mission of America’s surface combatants. But missions were rearranged with the coming of air power and submarines utilizing nuclear propulsion, so defense of the fleet against overhead and undersea threats came to dominate designs. Once the Red Navy disappeared from the world’s oceans, anti-ship capabilities became an afterthought.
Now the threat posed by hostile warships is back, driven mainly by China’s rise in the Western Pacific. If the U.S. Navy wants to preserve its dominant role in the region, it will need to rebuild its ability to deter and defeat hostile naval forces. And given the pace at which Beijing is modernizing its military, the solution to this challenge has to reach the fleet fast.
There appears to be only one solution with the necessary range, lethality and survivability. It is called the Long Range Anti-Ship Missile, or LRASM (“luh-razzim”). The missile is derived from an Air Force munition called the Joint Air-To-Surface Standoff Missile that in its extended-range version can reach 580 miles, and is so stealthy it is nearly impossible to detect—much less shoot down.
Working with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Navy has evolved a maritime version of the Air Force missile that can be fired from carrier-based aircraft, from launch tubes already installed on most U.S. surface combatants, and potentially by Marines ashore. It can even be launched from angled cannisters retrofitted onto a diverse array of warships such as amphibious vessels.
Whatever deployment mode is used, LRASM can cover the entire distance between China’s coast and the island chain stretching from the Philippines through Taiwan to the Japanese archipelago. China’s naval planners have been trying to turn this area into a sanctuary from which they can exclude U.S. military forces—even though it contains international shipping routes—but with LRASM, the sanctuary turns into a trap for Beijing’s maritime aspirations. China’s navy has little means to counter a maneuvering weapon that generates no trackable radar return or infrared signature.
LRASM is built by Lockheed Martin, which is also the prime contractor for the Air Force missile from which it is derived. Its high-tech seeker was created by BAE Systems. Both companies contribute to my think tank and are consulting clients, which has enabled me to learn a fair amount about how the munition works. It is the epitome of a smart weapon, able to precisely target hostile warships even when enemies are jamming GPS signals, and hit the most vulnerable part of the target. Targeting coordinates can be updated in flight from local or overhead sources, but the seeker is designed to operate autonomously once it is near its target.
It is devilishly difficult to defeat an incoming missile that you can’t see, and that operates in multiple frequencies to find its aimpoint. Once that aimpoint is reached, the missile’s thousand-pound blast fragmentation warhead would make quick work of most Chinese warships. Stealthy smart weapons are intrinsically more efficient that other munitions, because they almost always reach their targets, so few rounds are wasted. Because it is so agile, LRASM can approach well-defended targets only a few feet above the water (that’s called sea-skimming) and it can identify its intended target with high reliability.
As if all of this were not enough, Lockheed Martin has built the missile to be compact so that it fits readily into existing launch systems. If deployed on a U.S. destroyer, for example, the warship can continue to perform its air and missile defense mission even as it assumes a more robust anti-ship role. And growth margin has been incorporated into the munition to allow further refinements as new technology becomes available. The system has been successfully demonstrated on carrier-based F/A-18 fighters and Air Force B-1 bombers (a B-1 can carry two dozen of the weapons, enough to destroy an entire Chinese naval task force).
The goal, of course, is not to threaten China but to enforce U.S. maritime rights in the Western Pacific. Once LRASM is deployed in numbers, Beijing will know that any aggressive move at sea could be stopped in its tracks at relatively low cost to U.S. forces. In other words, the weapon is a potent deterrent—a low-cost, easily deployed, highly lethal system. Years of testing have demonstrated that LRASM works as advertised, so now the question is how widely it will be deployed with Navy and Marine units.
If LRASM follows the same path exhibited by past game-changing weapons, it will be introduced gradually to the fleet, with the number of operators growing as the versatility and cost-effectiveness of the weapons become more apparent. The Marines might eventually elect to deploy it on the entire amphibious fleet, and with ground units going ashore. It all depends on how missions evolve, and what other options are on the table. At the moment, LRASM looks like the best option by far to quickly address the rising challenge that Chinese naval forces pose in the Western Pacific.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/lorent...-for-defeating-hostile-warships/#5f33ffc915cb
Unless you follow naval matters closely, you probably wouldn’t know that. There was a time when defeating enemy warships was the top mission of America’s surface combatants. But missions were rearranged with the coming of air power and submarines utilizing nuclear propulsion, so defense of the fleet against overhead and undersea threats came to dominate designs. Once the Red Navy disappeared from the world’s oceans, anti-ship capabilities became an afterthought.
Now the threat posed by hostile warships is back, driven mainly by China’s rise in the Western Pacific. If the U.S. Navy wants to preserve its dominant role in the region, it will need to rebuild its ability to deter and defeat hostile naval forces. And given the pace at which Beijing is modernizing its military, the solution to this challenge has to reach the fleet fast.
There appears to be only one solution with the necessary range, lethality and survivability. It is called the Long Range Anti-Ship Missile, or LRASM (“luh-razzim”). The missile is derived from an Air Force munition called the Joint Air-To-Surface Standoff Missile that in its extended-range version can reach 580 miles, and is so stealthy it is nearly impossible to detect—much less shoot down.
Working with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Navy has evolved a maritime version of the Air Force missile that can be fired from carrier-based aircraft, from launch tubes already installed on most U.S. surface combatants, and potentially by Marines ashore. It can even be launched from angled cannisters retrofitted onto a diverse array of warships such as amphibious vessels.
Whatever deployment mode is used, LRASM can cover the entire distance between China’s coast and the island chain stretching from the Philippines through Taiwan to the Japanese archipelago. China’s naval planners have been trying to turn this area into a sanctuary from which they can exclude U.S. military forces—even though it contains international shipping routes—but with LRASM, the sanctuary turns into a trap for Beijing’s maritime aspirations. China’s navy has little means to counter a maneuvering weapon that generates no trackable radar return or infrared signature.
LRASM is built by Lockheed Martin, which is also the prime contractor for the Air Force missile from which it is derived. Its high-tech seeker was created by BAE Systems. Both companies contribute to my think tank and are consulting clients, which has enabled me to learn a fair amount about how the munition works. It is the epitome of a smart weapon, able to precisely target hostile warships even when enemies are jamming GPS signals, and hit the most vulnerable part of the target. Targeting coordinates can be updated in flight from local or overhead sources, but the seeker is designed to operate autonomously once it is near its target.
It is devilishly difficult to defeat an incoming missile that you can’t see, and that operates in multiple frequencies to find its aimpoint. Once that aimpoint is reached, the missile’s thousand-pound blast fragmentation warhead would make quick work of most Chinese warships. Stealthy smart weapons are intrinsically more efficient that other munitions, because they almost always reach their targets, so few rounds are wasted. Because it is so agile, LRASM can approach well-defended targets only a few feet above the water (that’s called sea-skimming) and it can identify its intended target with high reliability.
As if all of this were not enough, Lockheed Martin has built the missile to be compact so that it fits readily into existing launch systems. If deployed on a U.S. destroyer, for example, the warship can continue to perform its air and missile defense mission even as it assumes a more robust anti-ship role. And growth margin has been incorporated into the munition to allow further refinements as new technology becomes available. The system has been successfully demonstrated on carrier-based F/A-18 fighters and Air Force B-1 bombers (a B-1 can carry two dozen of the weapons, enough to destroy an entire Chinese naval task force).
The goal, of course, is not to threaten China but to enforce U.S. maritime rights in the Western Pacific. Once LRASM is deployed in numbers, Beijing will know that any aggressive move at sea could be stopped in its tracks at relatively low cost to U.S. forces. In other words, the weapon is a potent deterrent—a low-cost, easily deployed, highly lethal system. Years of testing have demonstrated that LRASM works as advertised, so now the question is how widely it will be deployed with Navy and Marine units.
If LRASM follows the same path exhibited by past game-changing weapons, it will be introduced gradually to the fleet, with the number of operators growing as the versatility and cost-effectiveness of the weapons become more apparent. The Marines might eventually elect to deploy it on the entire amphibious fleet, and with ground units going ashore. It all depends on how missions evolve, and what other options are on the table. At the moment, LRASM looks like the best option by far to quickly address the rising challenge that Chinese naval forces pose in the Western Pacific.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/lorent...-for-defeating-hostile-warships/#5f33ffc915cb
