Missile Defense ... From The Sea

USS Lake Erie Forges the Way to the Future

By JOHN HAMMERER

Capt. John Hammerer is the commanding officer of the Ticonderoga-class Aegis guided-missile cruiser USS Lake Erie.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning naval historian Rear Adm. Samuel Eliot Morison, USNR, can add perhaps one more credit to his impressive list of accomplishments--that of naval visionary. In the closing paragraph of his Two Ocean War he summarized what he thought the future might hold for the U.S. Navy:

"... No matter what the atomic age brings, America will always need sailors and ships and shipborne aircraft to preserve her liberty, her communications with the free world, even her existence. If the deadly missiles with their apocalyptic warheads are ever launched at America, the Navy will still be out on the blue water fighting for her, and the nation or alliance that survives will be the one that retains command of the oceans."

Today that reality is coming to fruition as part of President George W. Bush's pledge to support the development and deployment of a Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) system that will protect the United States and its allies against missile attack. The proliferation of missile technology--and the comparative ease with which these missiles can be equipped with weapons of mass destruction (WMDs)--has made the development of a missile shield a high priority of the Department of Defense.

The U.S. Navy is making a major contribution toward the achievement of this goal with the development of Naval Ballistic Missile Defense in three major areas: (1) the continued evolution of the Aegis weapons system; (2) the development of ship-launched missiles capable of intercepting theater ballistic missiles in and outside of the atmosphere; and (3) the development of the operational concepts of naval missile defense.

Pioneering these efforts in the fleet is the Aegis guided-missile cruiser USS Lake Erie, homeported in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

A Pioneering Achievement

Since 1999, Lake Erie not only has pioneered the development of the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System, but also has achieved an impressive operational record. There was much debate on whether to dedicate just one ship to the project or to rotate ships in and out of the role. In the end, the decision to assign just one ship for a relatively long period of time to the project seems to have been the right one. The test program has been highly successful, and the Lake Erie has been able to maintain an enviable record of operational readiness.

The foundation of the Lake Erie's emerging ballistic-missile defense capability is built upon the Aegis weapons system. The versatility of Aegis is once again confirming the vision of its "Father," Rear Adm. Wayne E. Meyer. The combat system's computer programs have been modified to focus the capability resident in the Aegis weapons system equipment on the Theater BMD (TBMD) mission. Extensive testing in a wide variety of scenarios has already confirmed that there is significant capability in the system first designed and produced more than 25 years ago to defeat a completely different threat. Therein lies the power of Aegis and its significantly improved weapons system.

With an Aegis fleet already numbering more than 50 ships, highly trained crews, and forward-deployed around the world, the value of missile defense "... From the Sea" is readily apparent. The Navy has a tremendous advantage when it comes to deploying an operational system in the near term. In referring to the Sea Shield component of the Navy's current strategy, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Vern Clark said earlier this summer--at the Naval War College's Current Strategy Forum in Newport, R.I.--that "The defensive value of an afloat missile-defense system will complement the offensive capabilities of Sea Strike and the awesome power of our ballistic missile submarine force--which will remain a cornerstone of national security."

Lake Erie's TBMD capability has evolved from the tactical computer programs now used by all other Aegis guided-missile cruisers and destroyers. One version of the program was optimized to enable the tracking and engagement of TBMs in the atmosphere using a modified SM-2 Block IV missile. Another, known as the Aegis LEAP (Light Exo-Atmospheric Projectile) Intercept, or ALI, program, was optimized to track and engage threat missiles in their mid-course or ballistic phase of flight. These two distinct TBMD programs are now managed by the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense Program Office under the direction of the Department of Defense (DOD) Missile Defense Agency.

Blitz in the Pacific

Lake Erie began her participation in TBMD as an element of the Pacific Blitz 2000 exercise, during which she first successfully tracked a TBM target using the Linebacker computer program. After this and subsequent successful tracking events at the Kwajalein Missile Range in the Republic of the Marshall Islands, the ship began participating in a sequence of ALI missions. The most significant of these missions, designated as Flight Mission Two (FM-2), took place in January 2002 at the Pacific Missile Range Facility centered on the Hawaiian Island of Kauai.

While the official test objective was to demonstrate kinetic warhead guidance, navigation, and control against a live-target test vehicle, system performance exceeded all expectations and resulted in a historic intercept in space by a sea-launched missile. The technology involved in this program is extraordinary. The SM-3 Standard missile does not rely on a conventional fragmentation warhead. Rather, it relies upon direct hit-to-kill technology that depends on the explosive power of the kinetic energy resulting from the extraordinary speed and mass of colliding missiles to destroy the warhead of the enemy's ballistic missile.

The missiles are moving at a combined speed of more than five kilometers per second. The total energy involved would roughly equate to that of two 10-ton trucks colliding at a speed of 600 miles per hour! Little wonder that the Standard missile warhead's kill method is highly effective. The power of "hit to kill" is essential given the goal of totally destroying weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) outside the atmosphere--before they can rain their destruction on populations and territory below.

The historic success of FM-2 was repeated by the Lake Erie a few months later, in June 2002, during FM-3. One result of these two successful missions has been that the Navy and the Missile Defense Agency are now focusing their efforts on more complex ballistic missile threats, particularly those with multiple warheads and self-protecting decoys.

Net-Centric Power

Complementing the missile-defense firing missions has been a series of tracking and command-and-control exercises during which the Lake Erie has been forward-deployed from the Gulf of Alaska in the winter to the waters of the South Pacific. During these exercises, the crew and ship demonstrated the net-centric power of the first theater-wide ballistic missile defense command-and-control network--which encompassed an area from the Gulf of Alaska to Guam and across the Pacific to Australia. The abrogation of the ABM treaty has made it possible for the Lake Erie to be the first ship to participate in a ground missile defense integrated flight test formerly not permitted under the now-expired treaty.

While the Lake Erie's position at the forefront of the National Missile Defense initiative has been challenging for the crew, the experience also has been filled with many professional rewards that most Sailors never experience. The chance to participate in so many cutting-edge missions is a rare opportunity. Even more exciting has been the opportunity to work side by side with some of the nation's most proficient engineers and scientists--who not only developed the individual elements of the Aegis Combat System, but also provided the groundwork for the new field of Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense.

For each ALI flight mission, the Lake Erie undergoes an in-depth grooming of her combat system conducted jointly by the ship's force and the engineers who have developed this new capability. Close working relationships have been forged with representatives from the Naval Sea Systems Command's Naval Surface Weapons Center, Port Hueneme and Dahlgren Divisions; The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory; defense contractors such as Raytheon and Lockheed Martin; and a host of other government and civilian agencies.

Of particular interest to the crew were the opportunities to interact with some of the most noted leaders in the field of missile defense. During FM-2, for example, Dr. Hans Mark--a former director of DOD's research and engineering, a former secretary of the Air Force, and deputy director of NASA in the early days of the Space Shuttle program--embarked in the Lake Erie and provided significant insight on both the beginning and the future of Ballistic Missile Defense.

Army Maj. Gen. Peter Franklin, deputy director of the Missile Defense Agency, embarked during FM-3 to brief all hands on the joint missile defense program in general. He also took time to discuss with the ship's officers and crew the specifics of how the Navy fits in with the other DOD components of the Ballistic Missile Defense architecture and how the capabilities and limitations of the different services complement one another in the common goal of protecting the United States against missile attack.

In return, the Lake Erie gave General Franklin a unique opportunity to experience firsthand the versatility of sea power. Within minutes of completing the successful FM-3 intercept, the ship was tasked to steam more than 300 miles at high speed to conduct an emergency rescue. This emergent tasking provided a much deeper appreciation for the flexibility and utility of today's Navy and the challenges that all multimission warships face in today's environment.

Dual-Mission Challenges

The dual mission of being simultaneously tasked as a TBMD project ship while maintaining combat readiness presents some unique challenges. The complexity of the task of Ballistic Missile Defense, both technologically and operationally, inevitably creates a schedule that is extraordinarily dynamic. This presents the ship's officer and petty officer leadership with the challenge of scheduling events such as cruise missile tactical qualifications, engineering certifications, and maintenance availabilities that are tied to a fixed, predictable interdeployment training cycle in an extremely fluid development-and-testing program environment.

The Lake Erie's operations officer, Lt. Cdr. (Sel.) John Lipps, faces the challenge of managing an operational schedule that often changes before the ink is dry on the calendar. The good news is that the dynamic schedule mirrors the hectic schedule of an operational deployment's emergent taskings and contingency missions. When the missile-test schedule upon which the ship's entire operational schedule for the next six months was suddenly changed--and additionally affected by the events following 9/11--the officers and crew of Lake Erie were able to flex and ended up operating with three carrier battle groups in three months.

The Lake Erie, her operational chain of command, and the Navy's shore establishment have had to work closely together and find "outside-the-box" solutions to address the situation. One of those solutions has been to make full use of the Navy's "continuous maintenance" concept. Under this concept, the ship enters a "maintenance availability" of varying complexity and duration each time she pulls into her homeport of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

By aggressively pursuing this philosophy, and through the tremendous support provided by the commander, Naval Surface Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet--and by Pearl Harbor's maintenance facilities--the material condition of the ship has not only remained superb but has actually improved significantly. Warfighting capability has been maintained as well through a combination of at-sea and ashore trainers, participation in exercises such as RIMPAC 2002 (in which the Lake Erie served as both the air-defense commander and as the commander of a six-ship multinational force surface action group). During the most recent competitive cycle, the ship earned every component award of the Navy's Battle "E" readiness competition.

During the last 30 months, the Lake Erie has witnessed the birth of what can truly be considered the newest mission area for the Navy of the new millennium. Throughout and despite the numerous challenges involved, crew morale has been extraordinary, and the ship's performance has been equally superb.

The recurring lesson demonstrated through the Lake Erie's participation in the various missile defense exercises is that the warfighting advantages provided by an operational Naval Missile Defense system--guaranteed access, mobility not enjoyed by land assets, the ability to remain on station for extended periods, and the ability to operate while networked via satellite to other DOD commands worldwide--are invaluable and that the Navy has and will continue to be an irreplaceable component of the U.S. National Missile Defense strategy.

Were Admiral Morison able to witness the Lake Erie's pioneering efforts, he would undoubtedly be extremely pleased to see that his prediction is being realized. *