Sea-Air-Space Special Show Issue

Sea-Air-Space Special Show Issue Boeing Pitches Harpoon Missile GPS, Range Enhancements As Over-Horizon Anti-Ship Weapon By Dan Parsons While the Navy is expected to place an order for a new over-the-horizon anti-ship weapon in 2017, Boeing [BA] is marketing enhancements to the RGM-84 Harpoon missile that it hopes will forestall the service’s appetite for a new weapon. The Navy’s focus in developing precision strike weapons is on offensive anti-surface ship warfare enhancements to the Harpoon missile, said Capt. Jamie Engdahl, the Navy’s program manager for precision strike weapons. Many of the efforts to improve existing weapons are upgrading the targets acquisition and identification systems and GPS integration. “We know in the budget environment right now, it’s a tough time to start a brand-new weapon program, so we’re looking at the business cases and the affordability of what we’re going to do with the weapons we have in our inventory right now,” he said. Harpoon IC variant remains relevant to those missions, he said. It can lock onto, track and Two RGM-84A Harpoon missiles on a Mk 11 launcher aboard the USS destroy moving surface ships with an active radar- Lawrence (DDG 4). /Navy Photo homing seeker. It is deployable in all weather and is capable of skimming close to the sea, which makes it survivable against heavily defended ships with anti-ship missile defenses. “We have done continuous upgrades of this capability ever since it was fielded,” he said. “A lot of those are classified, but this thing is relevant in 2016. We have many of them in our inventory and a large international inventory.” As with many legacy weapon systems, the Navy will keep the Harpoon in its arsenal for decades to come and Visit us at the SAS Show • May 16-18 • Booth 1801 © 2016 by Access Intelligence, LLC. Federal copyright law prohibits unauthorized reproduction by any means and imposes fines of up to $100,000 for violations. 2 Defense Daily May 2016 OCTOBER 18, 2016 | CAPITAL HILTON | WASHINGTON, D.C. SEA-AIR-SPACE DISCOUNT: REGISTER WITH CODE SAS16 BY MAY 31 TO SAVE UP TO $170! Defense Daily’s ninth annual Open Architecture Summit will focus on better buying power and business opportunities in the application of open architecture (OA) solutions in defense and national security acquisition. The Department of Defense’s mandate of Better Buying Power (BBP) is the implementation of best practices within the industry to strengthen better buying power. Finally, open architecture is no longer an ethereal concept; there are now real-life case studies on how open architecture has impacted the defense industry and increased better buying power. The 2016 Open Architecture Forum will focus on these case studies and high-level strategic updates on programs, projects, and initiatives. The agenda will include: » Keynotes from top government ofcials » Implementation case studies and results » Flag Ofcers Panel » Open architecture in the cyber environment – threats, challenges, and opportunities » Electronic warfare » Business opportunities for organizations working with the government “Great cross-section of government “Refreshing to hear such perspectives from military representatives providing “Concrete, speciﬁc leadership.” their insight!” examples of real work – good!” Sponsorship opportunities are available! To learn more about available packages and to secure your sponsorship, visit the Summit website. www.openarchitecturesummit.com Defense Daily, a division of Access Intelligence 9211 Corporate Blvd. 4www.defensedaily.comth Fl | Rockville, MD 20850 | Tel: 1-888-707-5814 [email protected] | www.defensedaily.com 28016 May 2016 Defense Daily 3 must figure out ways to increase its effectiveness and versatility. The service is tasked with sustaining Harpoon in one form or another until 2035 on the near end, he said. “This is kind of the story like the B-52,” he said. “We have a large inventory of Harpoon missiles. We are upgrading our Block 1C missiles to the Block II+ configuration for our air inventory and then we’re continuing to improve the missile where we can.” Under the Navy’s new doctrine of distributed lethality, wherein every surface combatant is also capable of offensive anti-ship, anti-aircraft and ship-to-shore fire, Harpoon is being integrated on the USS Coronado (LCS-4), an Independence-class Littoral Combat Ship (LCS). “If it floats, it fights,” is the operable explanation for distributed lethality, and a primary desired capability is an over-the-horizon targeting capability for anti-surface munitions. Within three months, a Harpoon launcher should be installed on the Coronado and be operational, he said. The eventual plan is for every LCS that debarks westward from the United States to have an over-the-horizon offensive capability. The missile’s unclassified effective range is 67 nautical miles. The Navy wants to lengthen its reach to bolster its deterrent effect in the Asia-Pacific region, he said. That will be accomplished primarily by shrinking the missile’s warhead while maintaining or increasing its potency. “What we’re seeing as we look at the threats especially in the Pacific theater, is that PACOM has been asking us for quite a few years what can you do about increasing the range of all of our SUW weapons?,” he said. “So that is a real focus here, how do we get more range.” The Block II+ configuration–which introduced the GPS/inertial navigation capability kit--flew free for the first time in November and will have its final free-flight test next week, he said. Fielding of the improved variant will being in summer 2017 initially on the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet and then on P-8A Poseidon sub hunters. A new radio communication capability will also allow for in-flight targeting updates. Boeing is developing the Harpoon Block II extended range (ER) variant that will have double the range within the same housing, said Jim Brooks, the company’s cruise missile programs director. The company is claiming it can meet that mark at half the cost of integrating a new missile, like the naval strike missile being pitched by Raytheon [RTN] and Sweden's Kongsberg for the Navy’s over-the-horizon “This is what we believe is the most capable, lowest-cost option for the U.S. Navy for LCS,” Brooks said. The Navy has about 7,000 Harpoons in its inventory. Boeing is banking on the cost savings associated with developing a retrofit capability enhancement to those legacy weapons to sell its system versus a new-start munition, Brooks said. There is a large existing international Harpoon market to which Boeing can pitch its upgrades. At least 30 countries currently have more than 4,000 weapons in their naval arsenals. The production line is still hot and humming and currently producing the 90th lot of missiles. “We just had our preliminary international program review a couple weeks ago,” he said. “There is a lot of interest and a lot of drive for advanced capability, especially extended-range capability coming form our international partners.” n Boeing Confident For Super Hornet Production Into the 2020s By Valerie Insinna Boeing [BA] is hopeful that potential Super Hornet orders from the Navy in fiscal years 2017 and 2018 and an expected sale of jets to Kuwait could extend the F/A-18E/F production line until 2020, and its program manager told reporters on Wednesday that he believes the service will need far more new Super Hornets than the 24 to 36 planes it has estimated, further prolonging the line. However, the Kuwait deal will be critical in bridging production of fiscal ’17 jet procurement with a possible order the next year, Dan Gillian, Boeing’s vice president and program manager for F/A-18, said during a briefing at the company’s Arlington office. The company currently manufactures two F/A-18E/F Super Hornets or E/A-18G Growlers a month at its facility in St. Louis, Mo. That pace is the minimum rate necessary to sustain production. Gillian expects that deliveries for the fiscal 2017 order would wrap up in the beginning of 2019. The 24 jets for Kuwait would then fill the rest of 2019 www.defensedaily.com 4 Defense Daily May 2016 before the Navy’s 2018 order starts production in 2020. “Our current plan, based on where we’re at with this conversation, is that the pieces fit together and we’re executing the plan,” he said. “If things happen and things change…those would all be things that could happen that you have to make a different business decision at that point in time, but right now we feel pretty confident about those three things happening in that order.” The next production decision is scheduled for later this year. “Based on where we see things going with Kuwait, we would expect to have a good enough demand signal there to feel confident” in ordering the long lead materials needed to be ready for production, Gillian said. “Sometimes a contract lags a little bit, but there’s lots of different ways for a demand signal to feel good enough for a company to move out.” Ultimately, Gillian believes the Navy will need to buy 100 new planes as well as a service life extension program (SLEP) for all of its current Super Hornets in order to meet operational demands and bridge the gap to the F-35, he said. Those numbers also would allow the service to field two F-35 and two Super Hornet squadrons per carrier air wing. Boeing intends to bring two Super Hornets to St. Louis to start assessing what work will be needed to bring the jets from 6,000 to 9,000 hours of service life.

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