U.S. Navy (Daniel Viramontes) Any Sensor, Any Shooter Toward an Aegis BMD Global Enterprise
By John F. Morton and George Galdorisi
John F. Morton is a Senior Analyst with Gryphon Technologies. Captain George Galdorisi, USN (Ret.), is Director of the Guided-missile cruiser Corporate Strategy Group at PAWAR USS Monterey under way Systems Center Pacific. in Mediterranean
ndupress.ndu.edu issue 67, 4 th quarter 2012 / JFQ 85 FEATURES | Toward an Aegis BMD Global Enterprise
he Aegis ballistic missile powerful messages to would-be aggressors shipboard components for Aegis BMD are defense (BMD) system aboard that we will act with others to ensure collec- the AN/SPY-1 S-band radar system and the the USS Ticonderoga (CG-47) tive security and prosperity.”3 Mk 41 vertical launching system (VLS). T guided-missile cruisers and In the Middle East and Asia, the United Phased upgrades of these components have Arleigh Burke (DDG-51) guided-missile States, its allies and partners, and naval joint given the Aegis BMD system the ability to destroyers has become a primary high-end and combined commanders are contending counter short- to intermediate-range bal- enabler for U.S., allied, and partner maritime with the high-end threats posed by accel- listic missile threats both in the lower and forces as they execute the full range of opera- erating Iranian and North Korean ballistic upper tiers of the atmosphere. tional tasks in regions where threat vectors missile and weapons of mass destruction The Navy in mid-2011 had 21 Aegis are accelerating and proliferating. Warship- development. In addition, naval command- BMD–capable warships: 5 cruisers and 16 focused Aegis BMD and its foundation, the ers in the Western Pacific now must counter destroyers. Sixteen of these BMD ships were Aegis Combat System, serve as the flexible antiaccess/area-denial capabilities such as in the Pacific supporting U.S., Japanese, and and adaptive capability to provide “regionally China’s development of the Dong-Feng 21D allied efforts to counter the ballistic missile concentrated, credible combat power,” as “ship-killer” ballistic missile. threat presented by North Korea. Five were articulated in the national maritime strategy.1 With Aegis BMD going global in the in the Atlantic to support the expanded Ballistic missile defense is a mission face of such regional high-end challenges, NATO requirements vis-à-vis Iran. The that involves all the Services, and regional U.S. coalition partners increasingly have the commitment of the Nation and the Navy to BMD is a mission that increasingly supports option to “plug into” Aegis. The question Aegis BMD is clear, with 94 Aegis-capable the U.S. geographic combatant command- then becomes the extent to which their naval ships planned for by 2024.4 ers. Aegis BMD is only one component of assets—sensors and shooters—should be able MDA and the Navy are also devel- the larger national ballistic missile defense to provide and receive BMD capability. Our oping the Aegis Ashore program, a key system (BMDS). This article focuses primar- maritime partners are making calculations component that comes online in Phase II of ily on Aegis BMD, particularly current and based on their perceived national interests, the European PAA (EPAA), the four-phase planned roles supporting the combatant commands. Importantly, Aegis BMD is the centerpiece of the Phased Adaptive Approach Aegis BMD builds upon the success of the Navy’s Aegis Combat System (PAA), the four-stage framework for regional ballistic missile defense announced by Presi- threat assessments, and the inevitable budget regional PAA for the NATO area of respon- dent Barack Obama in 2009. tradeoffs that must be made in the midst of sibility. Initial deployments in Europe will Proven Aegis BMD capability directly the ongoing worldwide debt crisis and con- occur later in the decade. In Phase 1 (2011 supports or will support the three operational comitantly flat or declining defense budgets. timeframe), existing sea-based Aegis missile imperatives identified in the national mari- defense ships and radars were deployed to time strategy, as well as those implicitly or An Advancing Capability defend against short- and medium-range explicitly stated in the national security and Funded by the Missile Defense Agency ballistic missiles in Southern Europe. In military strategies: (MDA) and Navy, Aegis BMD builds upon Phases 2 (2015 timeframe), 3 (2018 time- the success of the Navy’s Aegis Combat frame), and 4 (2020 timeframe), Aegis SM-3 ■■ secure the United States from direct System with its more than 60 years of missile missiles will be successively upgraded to attack research, development, and testing; real-world provide coverage against medium- and ■■ secure strategic access and retain performance; and some $50 billion invested intermediate-range missiles. By Phase 4, the global freedom of action in technologies, systems, and ships. Aegis Block IIB variant of the SM-3 should have ■■ strengthen existing and emerging alli- entered the U.S. fleet in 1983 as a blue-water an intercept capability against some inter- ances and partnerships and establish favorable air defense system to defeat massed raids of continental ballistic missiles as well.5 security conditions.2 Soviet naval aviation antiship cruise missiles. In March 2011, the United States and In 1991, the Strategic Defense Initiative Orga- NATO began EPAA Phase I implementation Aegis BMD is evolving into a global nization, the predecessor to MDA, provided with the deployment of the Aegis cruiser USS enterprise as the system migrates from the the initial funding for the first Aegis BMD Monterey (CG-61) to the Mediterranean.6 U.S. Navy to allied navies. As such, the capability for area-wide and theater missile Armed with SM-3 Block IA interceptors, the system is becoming the interoperable “glue” defense. ship arrived on station with an immediate that binds the United States and its regional Since then, regular upgrades have capability to track and intercept short- and allies and partners into a credible combat provided increased capabilities at every medium-range missiles that comprise the force and, by extension, into a credible deter- step of Aegis development—guided by its Iranian ballistic missile threat to NATO ter- rent. Here, too, the maritime strategy states, trademark “build a little, test a little, learn ritory and populations. While other Aegis “Integrated maritime operations, either a lot” philosophy. The 2011 configuration BMD ships have deployed to the Mediter- within formal alliance structures (such as the of Aegis BMD, which was operationally ranean since 2009, Monterey was the first North Atlantic Treaty Organization [NATO]) certified in 2009, teams the Aegis 3.6.1 sustained 6-month deployment of such a ship or more informal arrangements (such as the weapon system with the Standard Missile-3 specifically to support the EPAA. Global Maritime Partnership initiative), send Block 1A missile. The other two major
86 JFQ / issue 67, 4 th quarter 2012 ndupress.ndu.edu Morton and Galdorisi
C2BMC and Link 16 enable TPY-2 radars to Aegis integrated weapons system aboard provide sensor data to shipboard SM-3 inter- USS Hopper launches RIM-161 SM-3 Block
U.S. Navy ceptors to allow an Aegis BMD ship to cue its IA during exercise Stellar Avenger sensors. With the addition of the launch-on- remote (LoR) capability, Aegis BMD ships will be able use this data to launch their inter- ceptors. And these interceptors—no longer constrained by the range of the Aegis radar to detect an incoming missile—can be launched sooner and fly farther. Existing Aegis BMD–equipped ships already embody the LoR capability, as demonstrated by the 25th Aegis BMD flight test FTM-15 on April 15, 2011. This was the first LoR test of the system against an As part of EPAA Phase II, Aegis Ashore The C2BMC application relies on the intermediate-range “separating target”— is a relocatable, land-based Aegis BMD Link 16 tactical data exchange network to a warhead separating from its booster system that, together with the shipboard ensure that sensor and shooter systems have missile. FTM-15 featured the Aegis BMD Aegis BMD, will provide the near-term the interoperability required for accepting system installed in the guided-missile deterrent framework against regional threats and sharing target and tracking data. Link destroyer USS O’Kane (DDG-77) firing to Europe from short- and medium-range 16 is on all Aegis cruisers and destroyers a Standard Missile-3 Block IA missile in ballistic missiles. Aegis Ashore will reduce and permits all elements of the national response to remote sensor data provided by the Navy’s need to maintain multimission BMDS to accept and share data with other a forward-based TPY-2 radar. This pitted Aegis BMD ships on station that would oth- tactical platforms. U.S. allies in the U.S. for the first time an in-service SM-3 Block erwise constrain their availability for other Pacific Command area of responsibility, 1A missile against an intermediate-range BMD and general purpose naval missions. Republic of Korea, and Japan rely on Link (1,800–3,400 miles) modified Trident In the NATO area, these conjoined elements 16 and their Aegis systems for accepting I/C-4 ballistic missile target called the of the PAA are the U.S. contribution to the and sharing information in their missile- LV-2. This test was well beyond the NATO territorial missile defense mission defense constructs. In Europe, NATO’s expected capability of the current version and requirement adopted at the Alliance’s missile defense committee is monitoring of Aegis BMD, Version 3.6.1, which was November 2010 Lisbon Summit.7 systems development to ensure interoper- developed to counter only short- and In May 2011, the United States and ability there as well. medium-range ballistic missiles. The LV-2 Romania agreed on the site for the first Aegis Link 16 will network the two relocatable had flown in two previous BMD live-fire Ashore. That site will include one land-based TPY-2s planned for Europe and space-based tests but was not hit until FTM-15. SPY-1 radar and a relocatable and modified satellites and airborne sensors with Aegis The flight test thus used technologies Mk 41 VLS capable of housing and launching BMD ships, the Aegis Ashore system, and and systems that are at sea and in service 24 SM-3 Block IB missiles. the air operations and C2BMC command today. There were no changes to O’Kane’s center in Ramstein, Germany. Altogether, BMD suite for the test. Thus, FTM-15 C2BMC-enabled Aegis BMD this network will expand the coverage area proved an intercept capability against a Both Aegis and Aegis-compatible to allow missiles to engage on remotely PAA Phase III intermediate-range ballistic ships plug into MDA’s Command, Control, obtained sensor data. Extending the range missile (IRBM) threat using a current, Battle Management, and Communications for intercepts will enable full-theater missile though enhanced, PAA Phase I Aegis BMD (C2BMC) element, which enables them defense across Southern Europe—a major architecture. Under the PAA, LoR is to have to share and receive enhanced capability. step toward the NATO territorial missile full operational capability during Phase II. Operational since 2004, C2BMC provides defense that was agreed upon at Lisbon. MDA had planned for LoR capability to layered missile defense by linking regional, C2BMC will link the TPY-2s and the U.S. come online in 2015 with the next spiral theater, and national commands into a Army’s Terminal High-Altitude Air Defense upgrades to the Aegis 4.0.1 system soft- single network, providing capability for and Patriot batteries under the NATO missile ware and SM-3 IB. The successful FTM-15 battle management, planning, situational defense framework. The system will also intercept demonstrates that the SM-3 IA, awareness, and sensor networking—the network with the Ground-based Midcourse supported by a forward sensor and C2BMC four major components for ballistic missile Defense system that provides missile defense architecture, can process forward cueing defense. C2BMC also links with orbital plat- for North America against intercontinental already, thus giving Monterey and other forms such as space-based infrared satellites, ballistic missiles. Aegis BMD ships on Phase I deployments which generate initial early warning data C2BMC enables a missile defense an initial LoR capability to intercept an that fuse with data coming from ground- framework that leverages “any sensor, any IRBM.9 based sensors, such as the directional AN/ shooter, at any phase of missile flight in any The latest Aegis BMD flight test, TPY-2 X-band radar. region, against any size and type of attack.”8 FTM-16, occurred September 1, 2011. The ndupress.ndu.edu issue 67, 4 th quarter 2012 / JFQ 87 FEATURES | Toward an Aegis BMD Global Enterprise primary goal was to engage a separating The addition of LoR capability enables BMD is completing lower tier activities ballistic missile target with the Aegis BMD Aegis BMD shooters to launch intercep- as it prepares for the upper tier ALTBMD 4.0.1 Weapon System and the SM-3 Block tors earlier in the target missile’s trajectory. efforts yet to be planned. A month after IB missile, the block upgrade to the SM-3 The goal is to enable a shooter to launch beginning its EPAA Phase I deployment in Block IA.10 The shooter, the guided-missile off a track of a forward-based sensor in the spring 2011, Monterey made a port visit to cruiser USS Lake Erie (CG-70), had on system. Ultimately, EoR will enable the Antwerp, Belgium, where it participated in board the 4.0.1’s upgraded Aegis BMD shooter to complete the intercept. LoR thus initial testing of links between Aegis BMD signal processor along with a two-color facilitates layered defense, a critical capabil- and ALTBMD. In August, NATO conducted infrared sensor in the SM-3 IB seeker. ity for the intercept of longer range and the first operational test of the links across FTM-16 was the first flight test of the fast-flying missiles. When launch-on-remote ALTBMD, C2BMC, and Aegis BMD to Block IB. Unfortunately, the test yielded no and engage-on-remote become operational, validate ALTBMD’s ability to track a target missile. This test was the first time that when launch-on-remote and engage-on-remote become ALTBMD and Aegis were formally linked and proved their command, control, and operational, the Aegis system can reach farther into the joint communications compatibility. Follow-on and combined arenas efforts will aim to make those links perma- nent, with a second test scheduled to occur intercept despite Lake Erie having success- the Aegis system can reach farther into the prior to ALTBMD initial operational capa- fully detected and tracked the target and joint and combined arenas. The enhanced bility in 2012.12 guided the SM-3. Although the test result network integration of Aegis BMD and was disappointing, FTM-16 highlighted the MDA’s BMDS legitimizes the concept of “any Aegis BMD Global Enterprise difficulties and complexities of the ballistic sensor, any shooter” and thus extends the Aegis open architecture provided defense mission. In accord with the Aegis battlespace as well as the area defended. by the Aegis BMD 5.0 system software philosophy, the Navy and MDA will glean upgrade will make it easier for allies and important information from FTM-16, Linking Aegis BMD and Regional partners to integrate new weapons systems incorporate it, and continue to advance Framework Capabilities via C2BMC and sensors into the Aegis system—and Aegis BMD capabilities. Similar to MDA and the Navy’s C2BMC. Aegis BMD officials have been FTM-16’s secondary objective was to approach with Aegis and Aegis BMD, NATO working with foreign shipyards on test the capability of the FTM-16 participants, has built its theater ballistic missile command innovative approaches for reconfiguring which along with Lake Erie included the and control system upon its air defense Aegis to fit on several classes of foreign Space and Naval Warfare Command and capability—calling the system Active Layered ships. Worldwide, seven shipyards have the Space Tracking and Surveillance System, Theater Ballistic Missile Defense (ALTBMD). installed Aegis and the SPY-1 radar aboard to exchange Link 16 tracks and simulated NATO is now expanding ALTBMD to meet seven different ship classes. In mid-2011, engagement status messages. FTM-16 thus its territorial missile defense requirement, more than 20 percent of the global Aegis served as the second test of the LoR concept which was announced at Lisbon.11 Alliance fleet was non-American. Five allies had for linking an Aegis ship to remote sensor members are not building and deploying their navies actively participating in data to increase the coverage area. Certifica- systems in isolation. Instead, they are provid- Aegis—Japan, Korea, Spain, Australia, and tion of BMD 4.0.1 and the Block IB was ing opportunities for regional and global Norway. scheduled for early 2012, after which the partners to participate in an integrated, net- This global effort started in the 1980s system would be ready to be used and sup- worked territorial missile defense effort that with a foreign military sales (FMS) relation- ported by the operational forces, thus provid- leverages prior investments and investment ship with Japan. The Japanese Maritime ing another initial LoR capability. decisions. Under the expanded ALTBMD Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) was the first The next step after LoR is the engage- framework, the European Allies will operate foreign navy to construct Aegis warships. on-remote (EoR) capability, where the systems for lower layer, terminal defense for The JMSDF currently operates four Kongo- interceptor uses tracking data from remote theater-deployed forces. Leveraging its con- class destroyers. The lead ship of the class was off-board sensors to destroy a missile threat. tribution, the U.S. Aegis BMD will operate commissioned in 1993. In 2000, the JMSDF EoR, scheduled for PAA Phase III deploy- upper layer (high-altitude) missile defense won approval for two improved units, known ment, advances LoR by providing an organic systems. as the Atago class. The lead ship of that class track to the interceptor late in its flight. To Aegis BMD and the MDA’s C2BMC was commissioned in 2007. the extent that LoR and EoR can provide element have been fully involved in Sharing the U.S. interest in build- enhanced capability to the Block IA, IB, and ALTBMD testing. In December 2010, Aegis ing ballistic missile defenses in light of an IIA interceptors, these missiles—supported BMD participated in the ALTBMD integra- increasing regional threat, Japan also decided by a C2BMC-netted sensor framework— tion test bed at the NATO Consultation, in 2003 to upgrade its Kongo-class destroyers have the potential to provide territorial and Command and Control Agency facilities with an Aegis BMD capability. U.S. FMS even homeland missile defense in some in The Hague, providing sensor support to packages subsequently went to upgrade all circumstances. initial lower tier ALTBMD efforts. Aegis four ships with this capability, along with
88 JFQ / issue 67, 4 th quarter 2012 ndupress.ndu.edu Morton and Galdorisi inclusion of SM-3 Block IA missiles. Japan an integrated architecture while stipulating Germany has assigned a BMD liaison eventually decided to upgrade its Atago-class that the system must have the capability of officer to the Aegis BMD staff to further ships with Aegis BMD as well. That upgrade adding BMD in the future. In 2004, Austra- German understanding of BMD-related enables the JMSDF to meet the tenets of its lia signed a memorandum of understanding issues. This summer, NATO pursued ideas New Defense Program Guidelines, which call with the United States that provides for for cooperative SM-3 procurement for use for a total of six Aegis BMD–equipped ships a 25-year framework for missile defense on German and Dutch frigates. In turn, to defend the country from missile threats in cooperation. Navantia also has a commercial these ships would further explore how they conjunction with U.S. Navy warships.13 enterprise with Norway that put the Aegis could provide sensor support to the long- Aegis BMD has worked closely with system aboard their Royal Norwegian Navy range sensor network under the EPAA.16 Japan since 1999 to design and develop Fridtjof Nansen F310–class frigates. In 2011, Finally, Denmark has plans to construct advanced components for the SM-3 missile. Norway received the last of five frigates of comparably equipped patrol frigates, sug- The United States and Japan signed a memo- the class that is a somewhat less capable but gesting another avenue for migrating the randum of agreement in 1999 to cooperate in still potent version of Spain’s F100. BMD capability to NATO navies. the development of the SM-3 Block IIA, with Although their navies have no Aegis Aegis BMD’s flight test program Japan contributing both funding and know- warships, other NATO Allies, specifically has engaged allied participation both in how. The Japanese technical contribution the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, missile tracking and interceptor launches. included activities in the areas of the kinetic Denmark, and Germany, have destroyers The JMSDF has progressed furthest in this kill vehicle, second-stage propulsion, and and frigates with combat systems that can regard, closely integrating its activities with the missile’s nose cone. In 2010, the Japanese contribute to a broader, Aegis-centered its American counterparts. The destroyer government relaxed its decades-long arms naval BMD architecture. In 2003, the Kirishima was the first foreign warship to embargo to allow for the U.S. export of the British signed a memorandum of under- participate in a U.S. Aegis BMD flight test in SM-3 Block IIA to other countries such as standing with the United States that led to the June 2006 FTM-10. In December 2007, U.S. European Allies.14 a follow-on 2006 joint study on a potential the Kongo became the first ship of an allied South Korea has announced plans Type 45 guided-missile destroyer BMD navy to successfully engage a ballistic missile to build six 5,600-ton KDX-IIIA Aegis- capability. The Netherlands and the United target during the JMSDF’s first flight test equipped destroyers beginning in 2019 that States have been assessing the potential of mission, designated Japan JFTM-1. Between will join its three Sejon-Daewan KDX-III Dutch naval combat systems for a BMD 2007 and 2010, four separate JMSDF ships destroyers scheduled for service by 2012. capability with SM-3 missiles that could launched SM-3 missiles at medium-range, High-level discussions have taken place to be integrated onto ships equipped with separating-warhead targets.17 These tests, provide South Korea an Aegis BMD capabil- a SMART-L surveillance radar and the involving JMSDF guided-missile destroyers, ity on its KDX-III class ships. In 2011, South Advanced Phased Array Radar (APAR). demonstrated the promise of a broad-based Korea declared that it was establishing a The German navy also operates three coalition enterprise linking several navies’ defensive system to combat air-breathing frigates fitted with SMART-L/APAR and Aegis capabilities to address shared opera- (aircraft and cruise missile) and ballistic the VLS missile launcher. Additionally, tional requirements. Japan’s involvement has missile threats from North Korea. Sched- uled to be in place by 2015, the Korean Air and Missile Defense System will be built around the capabilities inherent in its Aegis-equipped destroyers and its modified Patriot Advanced Capability-3 ground-based interceptors.
In Europe, Aegis has been included in U.S. Navy (Daniel Viramontes) a commercial relationship with Spain that has extended to an enterprise among the Spanish, Australians, and Norwegians.15 The Spanish navy has been operating four Aegis-equipped Alvaro de Bazan (F100) air defense frigates built by the Navantia ship- yard in Ferrol, Spain. A fifth F100 was under construction in mid-2011. Navantia has partnered with the Australian government to construct three Royal Australian Navy Hobart-class air defense destroyers at the ASC Shipbuilding facility in South Australia. Standing watch aboard guided missile cruiser USS Monterey, The Australian Ministry of Defence wants to Black Sea use Aegis to link other maritime assets into
ndupress.ndu.edu issue 67, 4 th quarter 2012 / JFQ 89 FEATURES | Toward an Aegis BMD Global Enterprise potential for the Aegis BMD, given Aegis emerging Aegis capabilities that are leverag- January 2007, available at
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