US Navy To Expand And Accelerate BMD Fleet Upgrades

The USN currently has three ships upgraded for use in BMD roles, these three ships (USS Shiloh (CG-67), USS Lake Erie (CG-70) and USS Port Royal (CG-73) ) are equipped with the SM-3 interceptor. Currently other surface combat ships are equipped to detect, track, and target ballistic missile but they lack the SM-3. However by the end of 2006 three new ships will be added to the BMD fleet, they are USS Curtis Wilbur (DDG-54), USS Stethem (DDG-63) and USS Decatur (DDG-73), they too will be fitted with the SM-3 missile. All these ships will primarily patrol the Pacific theater and be assigned to the Pacific fleet. Current Navy plan calls for 18 AEGIS cruisers and destroyers to be upgraded for the BMD role.

By the end of 2006, the U.S. Navy will have a total of six warships capable of tracking and shooting down ballistic missiles, the Navy Times reported Friday. Three cruisers -- the USS Shiloh, USS Lake Erie and USS Port Royal -- already have the capability to track ballistic missiles with upgraded Aegis radar.

They also have the ability to hit a ballistic missile with an SM-3 missile, shot out of standard Navy vertical launch system tubes, the report said.

Eventually, the U.S. Department of Defense wants 18 cruisers and destroyers with the missile-defense capability.

During a test June 22 off Hawaii, an SM-3 launched from the cruiser Shiloh hit a target warhead 100 miles above Earth. That intercept was the seventh successful hit out of eight tries in ship-borne tests, the Navy Times said.

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The Navy is also considering the location for a second possible mobile X-Band radar array in the Pac Rim region. One was already installed in Northern Japan and recently has gone operational. Potential sites for the second X-Band radar include the Okinawa prefecture, Guam and South Korea. IMO Okinawa is ideal; it would give us the capability to cover the area around Taiwan. The US is also in talks with Japan to accelerate the buildup of join BMD forces in the region.

The United States is considering deploying another radar system in the western Pacific region in response to North Korea's firing ballistic missiles last month, a U.S. Defense Department official was quoted as saying by Kyodo News Aug 21, 2006.

The four candidate sites for the second radar are in the Kyushu region and Okinawa Prefecture in Japan as well as South Korea and Guam, the U.S. official told Kyodo.

The U.S. government plans to talk to Japan with a view to accelerating the joint buildup of a ballistic missile defense shield to counter Pyongyang's nuclear and missile development, the official said according to the report.

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On a different note the Pentagon is discussing an apparent "gap" when it comes to defending the CONUS and North America in general from the cruise missile threat. The USAF, USN, US Army and NORAD are researching and proposing ways to better implement an "Integrated Air and Missile Defense" plan. Some future projects which may help in this area are the Navy’s SM-6 ERAM which is being designed to have an extended anti-cruise missile capability and possible upgrades to the AIM-120 AMRAAM which will enable it to target cruise missiles when directed by powerful airborne AESA radars, though I believe it alredy has some
capability against cruise missiles.

A Pentagon assessment of the U.S. capability to defend the homeland against incoming enemy cruise missiles has found what it calls "capability gaps" that may not be solved until 2015, InsideDefense.com reported Aug 17.

Officials from the U.S. Army and Navy, the U.S. Air Force's Air Combat Command, the North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Northern Command are also taking part, an Air Force official said according to the report.

In May, the Joint Requirements Oversight Council directed the Air Force to lead a so-called "Functional Solutions Analysis (FSA) for Integrated Air and Missile Defense (IAMD)," to include the Homeland Air and Cruise Missile Defense of North America. The following month, the Air Force Requirements for Operational Capability Council approved the "FSA Study Plan," which included a "call for concepts" via an RFI, the Air Force official told Inside Missile Defense, InsideDefense.com said.

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[edit on 23-8-2006 by WestPoint23]