Tactical Tomahawk Passes Underwater Launch Test

By RICHARD R. BURGESS
Managing Editor

A Tactical Tomahawk cruise missile has been launched successfully from an underwater launcher, completing the missile's contractor developmental flight tests and paving the way for the Navy's technical evaluation.

The Block IV Tomahawk--built by Raytheon Missile Systems--was launched in November from a fixed underwater launcher off San Clemente Island 50 miles west of San Diego. The missile separated its shroud, fired, and then separated its rocket motor and extended its wings, fins, and inlet duct. The Tomahawk used its GPS (global positioning system), terrain contour-matching, and digital scene-matching area correlation (DSMAC) systems to cruise 780 miles--while demonstrating its GPS anti-jamming capability--to the Naval Air Systems Command Western Test Range in China Lake, Calif., where it executed a terminal dive and struck its target.

The Tactical Tomahawk, already approved for low-rate initial production (25 missiles), is scheduled to reach initial operational capability in 2004. The missile features several enhancements, including mission planning on board the launch platform; inflight retargeting, loiter, and battle-damage assessment capabilities; and the ability to transmit in-flight status reports.

The November underwater launch follows the first successful test flight (in August 2002) of a Tactical Tomahawk. The Tactical Tomahawk Weapon Control System (TTWCS)--designed and built by Lockheed Martin Management & Data Systems in Valley Forge, Pa.--was successfully tested in October in the launch of a Block III Tomahawk from the Arleigh Burke-class Aegis guided-missile destroyer USS Stethem.

"Completion of this second flight test proves that the Tactical Tomahawk design is well on its way to providing the fleet with the most technologically advanced land-attack cruise missile ever built," said Capt. Robert Novak, the Navy's program manager for the Tomahawk. "Simply put, Tactical Tomahawk will be a centerpiece of an unheard-of revolution in strike warfare planning and execution."

DDG Christened Chafee At Bath Iron Works Yard

The first Flight IIA Arleigh Burke-class Aegis guided-missile destroyer (DDG) to be launched using the new land-level transfer facility at the Bath Iron Works (BIW) shipyard in Bath, Maine, has been named in honor of the late John H. Chaffee of Rhode Island.

Sen. John Warner (R-Va.), a close friend of Chafee, delivered the principal address at the christening ceremonies. The ship's co-sponsors--Virginia Chafee, widow of the ship's namesake, and Diane Blair, wife of retired Adm. Dennis C. Blair, former commander, U.S. Pacific Command--broke a bottle of champagne on the bow of the ship in the traditional manner during the 11 November Veterans Day ceremonies.

Chafee saw combat as a Marine during World War II on Guadalcanal and Okinawa and led a rifle company during the Korean War. He served three terms as governor of Rhode Island and was Secretary of the Navy from 1969 to 1972 under President Richard Nixon before being elected to the U.S. Senate.

The 511-foot Chafee (DDG 90) is the 40th Arleigh Burke-class DDG and the 22nd to be built by BIW, a General Dynamics company. The ship was built at the company's new land-level transfer facility and floated in a drydock rather than launched down a sliding way.

Cdr. John W. Ailes is the prospective commanding officer of the crew of 385 officers and Sailors of the 8,344-ton ship, which is scheduled to be commissioned in the fall of 2003 and to be homeported in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

Six Companies Selected For Littoral Ship Studies

The Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) has narrowed to six the number of companies involved in the competition to define future ship requirements and technology options for the proposed Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) and other future classes of ships.

The so-called Focused-Mission Ship Concept Studies funded by NAVSEA will explore a range of approaches to determine the operational requirements for future ships. The "focused-mission ship" is envisioned to be "a networked, agile, stealthy surface combatant capable of defeating anti-access and asymmetric threats in the littorals," Navy officials said. "Its primary missions would be prosecution of small boats, mine countermeasures, and littoral antisubmarine warfare."

Each of the six companies--down-selected from 18 companies in the original competition--were awarded $500,000 90-day contracts to complete the studies. The companies are: Bath Iron Works (Bath, Maine); Gibbs & Cox Inc. (Arlington, Va.); John J. McMullen Associates Inc. (Alexandria, Va.); Lockheed Martin Naval Electronics & Surveillance Systems-Marine Systems (Baltimore, Md.); Northrop Grumman Ship Systems (Pascagoula, Miss.); and Textron Systems Marine & Land Operations (New Orleans, La.).

Defense Industry Notes

* Raytheon Aircraft has delivered the Navy's first two T-6A Texan II joint primary training aircraft to Training Air Wing Six at Naval Air Station Pensacola, Fla. The T-6A initially will be used to train naval flight officers at the air station. Approximately 20 T-6As and two simulators are expected to be in place at NAS Pensacola by next summer, when student navigator training in the T-6A--which is replacing the T-34C--is scheduled to begin.

* Teledyne Brown Engineering provided ballistic-missile defense training support for the first Navy in-port exercise involving an entire battle group in such training. The company worked with Battle Force Tactical Training Laboratory engineers to train the Nimitz Battle Group--based in San Diego, Calif.--in the detection, tracking, and engagement of ballistic missiles through use of the Teledyne-developed Shipboard Theater Air and Missile Defense Exercise Controller.

* Boeing has delivered to the Navy the first of the Lot 25 versions of the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet strike fighter. The Lot 25 upgrade includes installation of a new mission computer capable of handling new mission avionics, including retrofit of the APG-79 AESA (Active Electronically Scanned Array) radar, which after delivery will be installed on Lot 27 versions of the Super Hornet.

* Northrop Grumman has outfitted a Navy airborne early warning (VAW) squadron with four Hawkeye 2000 versions of the E-2C Hawkeye aircraft. VAW-117--based at Naval Base Ventura County in Point Mugu, Calif.--is the first operational VAW squadron to receive the new aircraft, which features the Raytheon-built USG-3 avionics designed for the Cooperative Engagement Capability upgrade, as well as a mission computer upgrade, advanced control indicator set, a global positioning system, and uprated T56 engines.

* Australia has signed on as a Level III partner in the Lockheed Martin Joint Strike Fighter program, committing $150 million for development of the F-35 and bringing to eight the number of nations joining the United States in the program's system development and demonstration phase.

* Moog Inc. and Parker Hannifin have been awarded $113 million in contracts to develop the primary flight control systems for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. The companies expect to receive follow-on contracts for the aircraft's secondary flight controls and its wing-fold actuation system.

* BAE Systems has successfully completed a series of flight tests of the ALE-55 Fiber-Optic Towed Decoy (FOTD) designed for installation on the Navy's F/A-18E/F Super Hornet strike fighter. The FOTD--a component of the company's new Integrated Defensive Electronic Countermeasures/Radio Frequency Countermeasures system--was subjected to combat-representative maneuvers, including multiple exposures to the aircraft's afterburner plume.

* Northrop Grumman's Sperry Marine business unit has been awarded a $7.9 million contract to provide integrated bridge systems (IBSs) for the next eight Arleigh Burke-class Aegis guided-missile destroyers (DDGs 94 through 101) to be built by Bath Iron Works. The IBS improves situational awareness for bridge watchstanders, allowing them to view, in real time, the present position and movement of the ship, superimposed on a high-resolution electronic chart.

* The National Steel and Shipbuilding Company (NASSCO) has been awarded a two-year extension of a seven-year contract--originally awarded in 1997--to perform phased maintenance on the Pacific Fleet's five "big-deck" amphibious assault ships (LHAs/LHDs) based in San Diego, Calif. The work by NASSCO--teamed with Southwest Marine, Continental Marine Industries San Diego, and Pacific Ship Repair and Fabrication--allows the Navy to keep ships in San Diego for maintenance, reducing family separations for crew members and lowering costs for the Navy, company officials said.

* Raytheon's Joint Standoff Weapon (JSOW) team has successfully completed its first dynamic sled test of the Broach blast fragmentation/penetration warhead variant of the JSOW, the AGM-154C. The Broach warhead is built by BAE Systems; the weapon's fuzes and impact sensors are built by Thales Missile Electronics. In a related development, a JSOW launched from an F/A-18C Hornet scored a direct hit on a moving target during a demonstration of an Affordable Moving Surface Target Engagement (AMSTE) demonstration--sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. The JSOW used its on-board global positioning system to fly to the target area, then was steered via Link 16 to a direct hit on a moving T-60 tank by an Air Force E-8C Joint Surveillance Targeting Attack Radar System aircraft--built by Northrop Grumman. In a similar test, two Boeing-built Joint Direct-Attack Munitions (JDAMs) launched by an F-14D Super Tomcat were successfully directed by a Raytheon-built anti-jam UHF data link to hit the second and third vehicles within a five-vehicle convoy.

* NORSHIPCO, a subsidiary of United Defense Industries in Norfolk, Va., has been awarded a $10 million Naval Sea Systems command contract to perform repairs and upgrades to the aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy. NORSHIPCO is teaming with North Florida Shipyards Inc. in Jacksonville to perform the work at the ship's homeport of Mayport, Fla.

* Raytheon has successfully conducted an elevated propulsion gun test of the Long-Range Land-Attack Projectile designed for the 155mm Advanced Gun System, now under development for the Navy's DD(X) surface-combatant ship- building program. Company officials said that the test was conducted using a representative projectile fired from a 62-caliber proof-of-concept gun at Dugway Proving Ground, Utah. *