Naval Surface Fire Support: On Target

New Ships, Missiles, and Gun Systems for Power-Projection Missions

By STEPHEN H. KELLER

Stephen H. Keller is a senior program manager in the Anteon Corporation's Systems Engineering Group.

Anyone seeking information about current Naval Surface Fire Support (NSFS) programs will get a wide range of answers about how best to provide adequate fire support for Marine Corps amphibious operations and joint operations ashore. Some NSFS enthusiasts are convinced that the only way to provide a credible fire support capability in the near term is to bring back the powerful but far-from-precise 16-inch guns of the Iowa-class battleships. At the other end of the spectrum, the General Accounting Office suggests--in its May 2001 report, Navy Acquisitions: Improved Littoral Warfighting Capabilities Needed--that current NSFS efforts need to be accelerated and/or other alternatives explored.

Bracketed by these views and faced with the realities of a budget topline that must balance personnel programs with a procurement budget inadequate to maintain a 300-ship fleet, the Navy is executing a two-tiered plan for delivering a new generation of NSFS weapons. Several systems are being introduced in the near term to address many of the currently demanding operational fire support requirements. These systems will be leveraged in the development of a follow-on generation of fire support systems that will meet or exceed the range, reaction time, and sustainability requirements of the naval services in supporting future Marine Corps amphibious operations and/or the joint land battle ashore.

Recognizing that a potential "Revolution in Land Attack" has been taking shape over the past two decades, the Navy made clear--in Land Attack From the Sea, published late last winter--that it is "continuing to develop the weapons, the sensor and command and control systems, and the warships that will allow it to deliver a devastating response to military aggression against America's allies and interests.

"In addition to bringing precise long-range firepower to bear against enemy forces and infrastructure day or night and in all weather conditions," Land Attack continues, "surface combatants will soon provide unprecedented reach, responsiveness, volume of fire, and lethality to enable and support U.S. operations ashore."

Surface Combatants Fundamental to NSFS Operations

Although new fire support weapons and C4ISR (command, control, communications and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance) systems are necessary to meet the new operational requirements, the Navy's fleet of surface combatants on which these systems will be carried are just as important. The core of the current surface combatant force that will remain in service during the next several decades includes the current fleet of 27 Ticonderoga-class Aegis guided-missile cruisers (CGs) and 57 Arleigh Burke-class Aegis guided-missile destroyers (DDGs). Many of the DDGs are not yet in the active fleet.

Because most of the Aegis cruisers are quickly approaching the midpoint of their operational lives, planning for mid-life upgrades and conversion has been underway for several years. Various plans have been proposed--then revised and revised again. The current plan includes the use of tailored conversion packages that would build on two separate sets of core capabilities:

(1) The five "Baseline One" cruisers (CGs 47- 51) would be retrofitted with Mk41 vertical-launch systems (VLSs) and--along with the nine Baseline Four cruisers (CGs 65-73)--a "strike leader package" that would include systems such as the 5-inch/62-caliber gun system and Extended Range Guided Munitions (ERGMs). The latter would allow the cruisers to contribute significantly to the land battle in littoral regions of the world. These CGs also would be fitted with area ballistic-missile defense systems to defend forces ashore.

(2) The remaining Baseline Three (CGs 59-64) and Baseline Two (CGs 52-58) cruisers would be outfitted with more elaborate theater missile-defense packages that would include Navy theater-wide ballistic missile systems, but no land-attack systems.

Breakthroughs in C4ISR

Although the future will see new NSFS weapons, several key breakthroughs already have been made--not only in armament, but in electronics and information technology as well. The computers and networks that control future NSFS missions will provide greatly improved responsiveness and timeliness for fire missions supporting forces ashore.

The Naval Fires Control System (NFCS) will be the enabler for surface land attack in the execution of these fire support operations. NFCS will automate shipboard land-attack battle-management duties and incorporate improved land-attack battlefield digitization. NFCS will be interoperable with joint C4ISR systems, providing the mission planning and fire-support coordination functions needed to support the extended ranges and precision-strike and accuracy capabilities mandated for new fire support systems.

The Navy has awarded Lockheed Martin a contract to modify current Tactical Tomahawk Weapons Control Systems (TTWCSs) in order to integrate TTWCS, the Land-Attack Missile Fire Control System, and the NFCS. Modifications will provide for engagement and launch platform mission planning and launch control for Tomahawk and Land-Attack Standard Missiles (LASMs), and will be used in planning capabilities for current and future gun systems.

Naval Gun Revival

New gun systems being developed and introduced into the fleet include the 5-inch/62-caliber Mk45 Mod 4 and the 155mm Advanced Gun System (AGS). Both systems are being developed and produced by the United Defense Limited Partnership. The 5-inch/62 incorporates structural improvements to the 5-inch Mk45 gun to accommodate the higher energies necessary to fire ERGMs. The Mk45 Mod 4 gun will retain the capability, though, to load and fire the conventional 5-inch ballistic ammunition in the current inventory.

Modifications to the Mk45 Mod 4 include a longer 62-caliber barrel, an ammunition recognition system, an interface between the gun and the ERGM round, and a new digital gun control system. The ammunition magazine also has been modified for the storage and handling of ERGMs. The Mk45 Mod 4 program entered low-rate initial production in April 1999 and the first system went to sea on the Aegis guided-missile destroyer USS Winston S. Churchill, which was commissioned on 10 March 2001.

The EX-171 ERGM, being developed by the Raytheon Corporation, is a rocket-assisted 5-inch gun projectile designed to carry a submunition warhead to ranges in excess of 60 nautical miles in support of expeditionary operations and naval fires support to the joint land battle. It uses a Global Positioning System/Inertial Navigation System (GPS/INS) combination to provide precision targeting.

The ERGM has proved to be technically challenging, but it is clearly a program that has moved steadily forward to meet those challenges. A test of the ERGM round early this year achieved all primary objectives, and a new micro-electro-mechanical-based Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) performed well during the test. A guided flight of a complete ERGM round is expected later this year.

The 155mm Advanced Gun System (AGS) is being developed for initial installation in Zumwalt-class (DD 21) destroyers. The AGS, which will fire a family of projectiles, will provide high-volume (12 rounds per minute) sustainable fires (750 rounds per gun) at ranges up to 100 nautical miles in support of amphibious operations and the joint land battle. Initial AGS rounds probably will be fitted with blast-fragmentation warheads, but smart submunition packages will be developed as the program matures.

Both SAIC/Lockheed Martin and Raytheon have completed initial testing of AGS projectiles; the testing of fully functional rounds is expected to begin as early as next summer. Development of AGS munitions should benefit from ongoing research and development on two other gun ammunition programs, the previously mentioned EX 171 ERGM and the Army's XM982 Excalibur guided projectile, both of which should begin to reach maturity and operational introduction within a six-year period beginning as early as 2005.

Artists' concepts and models developed by the two DD 21 industry teams reveal different approaches in the development of their respective DD 21 designs. The Northrop Grumman/Litton Ingalls Gold Team design has both AGS mounts located forward, freeing deck space aft for a large helicopter deck, while the design offered by the Blue Team--led by General Dynamics, Bath Iron Works, and Lockheed Martin--positions one AGS mount forward and the other aft.

High-Level Focus On Land-Attack Missiles

The revolution in surface fire support systems has led to a high-level focus on the growing importance of land-attack missile systems. The Tomahawk has proved extremely effective in this mission, but its cost may well prevent production in the quantities needed to meet all future surface fires support requirements. The Navy is addressing this problem by evaluating the ubiquitous Standard (SM-2) surface-to-air missile to meet near-term naval surface fires requirements.

The LASM variant of the Standard (SM-2) missile--now designated the SM-4--will give surface combatants a weapon with a range out to nearly 150 nautical miles that possesses the lethality, responsiveness, and accuracy needed to meet naval fires requirements for expeditionary maneuver warfare. Initial versions of the LASM, a supersonic missile launched from the Mk41 Vertical Launching System, will employ a Mk125 blast-fragmentation warhead and a combined GPS/INS system for precision guidance to its target. Another version of the SM-4 has been proposed that would include a submunition warhead--a submunitions dispenser for this version of the missile already has been tested.

Funding for the LASM program began in FY 2000 and operational introduction to the fleet is scheduled for 2004. The Navy is expected to procure up to 800 LASMs. Successful demonstration flights already have been conducted and development efforts are now focusing on risk reduction and analysis. LASM already has completed its Preliminary Design Review and is now going through its Critical Design Review.

Meanwhile, improvements to the Tomahawk missile system have continued at a rapid pace. The latest version of Tomahawk--known as Tactical Tomahawk (TACTOM) and now designated Tomahawk Block IV--will maintain the system's long-standing effectiveness in long-range precision strike operations, continuing to significantly reduce costs while at the same time adding order-of-magnitude increases in the weapon's responsiveness and flexibility.

The TACTOM will introduce several new capabilities and features, including increased range, in-flight retargeting, a loitering mode, the ability for operators to monitor the in-flight health and status of the weapon via a satellite data link, and a battle-damage-indication imagery system capable of providing operators digital photographs of the battlefield and/or of specific targets.

Another improvement will be a GPS-based mission planning capability on the launch platform, enabling shipboard personnel to rapidly respond to missions against emergent targets. Future improvements may include multimission warheads that could be adjusted to meet new targeting requirements.

Transforming Naval Fire Support

Seeking to ensure the range, responsiveness, accuracy, and lethality capabilities needed to execute future Operational Maneuver From the Sea and Ship-to-Objective Maneuver missions, the Navy has started initial development of an Advanced Land-Attack Missile (ALAM). The ALAM is designed to provide Zumwalt-class destroyers and other Mk41 VLS-equipped surface combatants a surface fires support weapon that will meet the demanding requirements postulated for future surface combatants at ranges exceeding 200 nautical miles.

An Analysis of Alternatives for ALAM began in September 1999 and has apparently now focused on the alternative of improving currently available weapon systems, rather than investing in an entirely new weapon system. The improvements could take the form of further upgrades to the LASM and/or a navalized version of Lockheed Martin's Tactical Missile System (TACMS). ALAM payloads eventually could include the Sense and Destroy Armor (SADARM) or Brilliant Anti-Armor submunitions.

The Guidance and Terms of Reference for the 2001 Quadrennial Defense Review specifically postulate that U.S. forces must "transform in a manner that outpaces competitors by pursuing new technologies, concepts, and organizational arrangements" that extend their reach and allow forces to strike with precision. Current NFS programs, the Navy believes, are clearly addressing those requirements.

The Navy will continue to provide the nation with ships capable of responding to the full range of operational requirements--from deterrence to warfighting--in this new century so fraught with uncertainty about worldwide threats both old and new. The focus on improved NFS capabilities is intended to provide decisive results ashore in support of the Marine Corps and joint land operations.