Navy Puts Aegis Ballistic Missile Defenses On Alert in Pacific Antimissile Force to Comprise 18 Ships by End of 2006 as Part of ‘Layered Defense’

By KATHLEEN K. PAIGE

On Dec. 11, 2003, a ballistic missile target roared off its launch pad at the Pacific Missile Range Facility, Barking Sands, Hawaii, streaking to a velocity of more than 5,000 miles per hour and an altitude of more than 100 miles at its highest point.

Far below, the guided-missile destroyer USS Russell performed its long-range surveillance and track (LRS&T) mission, detecting the target as soon as it broke the horizon of its SPY-1 radar, a key component of the ship’s Aegis air defense weapon system. Stationed offshore, Russell began tracking the target and transmitting the track data via satellite to a regional Ballistic Missile Defense System (BMDS) communications node, which forwarded it to other elements of the BMDS command-and-control network.

The tracking data also went by satellite to the guided-missile cruiser USS Lake Erie located farther at sea. The tracking information indicated the location of the target and its projected course, enabling the Lake Erie’s SPY-1 radar to begin a cued search, looking in a predicted area of space for the target. Within seconds, the Lake Erie acquired the target at a range of more than 150 nautical miles, transitioned to track and computed a fire-control solution to intercept the target.

Two minutes after target launch, the Lake Erie fired a Standard Missile-3. Only 150 seconds later, the missile achieved a direct hit of the target warhead. This flight mission was the first time a full lethal aim point shift was incorporated to properly impact the target in the warhead section.

The mission also tested the operational concepts of the Navy’s role in the BMDS. By late September, Navy Aegis destroyers will be forward deployed to provide early warning, as well as tracking data of incoming Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles to the BMDS. According to Lt. Paul Wingeart, Lake Erie’s combat system officer, “The test program began the transition from merely testing the capability to exercising operational concepts.”

The warfighters of the Russell and Lake Erie — and many other Navy units — are leading the way as the service prepares to take on a new mission: a strategic role in homeland defense against ballistic missiles.

Ballistic Missile Defense System

One year prior to that test flight, President George W. Bush directed the Department of Defense to begin fielding initial missile defense capabilities in 2004 and 2005 to meet the near-term ballistic missile threat to the homeland, deployed forces, friends and allies. The Missile Defense Agency is developing the BMDS to provide an integrated “layered defense” against ballistic missiles of all ranges, in all regions of the world and in all phases of flight.

The BMDS contains three layers of defense corresponding to the trajectory phases of an attacking ballistic missile: boost, midcourse and terminal. Various components, including sensors and interceptors, are designed to operate within each defensive layer. These components are integrated by a command-and-control, battle-management and communications network that enables the sharing of target tracking data from any BMDS sensor to any other BMDS element, regardless of that element’s defense layer. The BMDS philosophy is to force the hostile missile to run a gauntlet of integrated, joint missile defense elements located in each phase of its flight path.

To develop, field and update the BMDS, the Missile Defense Agency has instituted an evolutionary acquisition approach referred to as spiral development. The deployment of the defensive system is structured in incremental two-year “blocks.” The first block period is 2004. Block 2004 includes the Army’s Ground-based Midcourse Defense System, Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System, Patriot radar and missile system and the BMDS battle management network. With each subsequent block upgrade, the BMDS will become increasingly capable and robust.

Over time, this spiral development approach will integrate additional elements into a layered missile defense system capable of defending against all ranges of ballistic missiles — short, medium, intermediate and long range — in all phases of flight. The initial set of missile defense capabilities fielded in 2004 enables midcourse phase engagements of long-range ballistic missiles (LRBMs), using Army ground-based interceptors. Forward-deployed Aegis destroyers will provide early warning and tracking data of LRBMs.

Lt. Gen. Ronald T. Kadish, former director of the Missile Defense Agency, told Congress that the initial BMDS “will engage a long-range ballistic missile threat across 9,500 miles … at an altitude of 100 kilometers. At no time in history has there been an engagement performed by detection and weapon engagement systems separated by such distances.”

Long-Range Surveillance and Track

Aegis BMD Block 2004 consists of two major contributions to BMDS. The first — Aegis destroyers equipped for LRS&T — provides a capability to detect and track LRBMs and report the track data to the BMDS. This capability assists in the sharing of tracking data to cue other defensive sensors. It also provides fire-control support to engagement elements. LRS&T is part of the initial portion of BMDS, which will be on alert by the end of September.

‘The second contribution is Aegis Ticonderoga-class cruisers equipped with the LRS&T capability and armed with the new Standard Missile-3, capable of intercepting short- and medium-range ballistic missile threats in the midcourse phase of flight. This engagement capability is scheduled for operational deployment in 2006. In the future, Aegis BMD capability will evolve to defeat longer-range ballistic missiles.

The LRS&T mission is two-fold. First, Aegis LRS&T destroyers must detect and track LRBMs. This presents a different set of technical challenges than the ones faced in the anti-air warfare mission, for which the Aegis ships originally were designed. Hostile ballistic missiles must be detected and tracked at longer ranges and higher velocities and elevations.

Radar energy spreads, and therefore decreases, with range, making a longer-range object harder to detect. Radar beams also deteriorate at higher elevations. Therefore, the Aegis SPY-1 radar computer program was updated to increase the search and track volume of the radar and employ new programmable energy waveforms.

Next, the Aegis tracking data must be transmitted to BMDS to cue other BMDS sensors and assist in the engagement of LRBMs by the Ground-based Midcourse Defense System. To accomplish these tasks, the Navy has modified the Aegis ballistic missile defense battle-management and command-and-control system, enabling it to receive and process high-priority electronic intelligence reports.

The modified Aegis system also receives, processes and transmits ballistic missile defense messages over Link 16, the Pentagon’s primary secure, digital, jam-resistant data communications system. In addition, satellite Link 16 has been developed to support an over-the-horizon ballistic missile surveillance and reporting capability.

A tracking demonstration, designated “Glory Boost,” was conducted in September 2002 by the Missile Defense Agency to determine if the SPY-1 radar, operating in ballistic missile defense mode, could readily track ballistic missiles in the boost phase of flight. A Minuteman III ballistic missile was launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. The Lake Erie, stationed approximately 100 miles off the coast, detected and tracked the LRBM in its boost phase of flight — an Aegis first.

Putting Aegis BMD On Alert

A series of risk-reduction, at-sea demonstrations, known as Pacific Explorer, are being conducted to verify and test the transmission and conversion of Aegis ballistic missile tracking data through BMDS communication nodes and full integration into the BMDS. The objective of Pacific Explorer I, conducted July 16 to Aug. 6, 2003, was to demonstrate the ability to transmit Aegis BMD track data, via satellite Link 16, from an Aegis ballistic missile defense ship located in the western Pacific to a continental U.S. test site for the Army’s ground-based element of the BMDS.

To support this test, the Lake Erie deployed to the western Pacific. When on-station, the ship, operating a developmental Aegis Weapon System (AWS) computer program modified for the transmission of BMD Link-16 messages, began the transmission of simulated ballistic missile tracks via satellite Link 16. The tracking data was successfully transmitted to the test site.

The objectives of Pacific Explorer II included the exchange of Aegis tracking data and messages between an Aegis ballistic missile defense ship and an Army ground-based fire-control computer via a regional communication node. A second objective was to train the ships’ crews scheduled to receive the initial LRS&T upgrades.

To provide more operationally realistic training, prototype LRS&T installations were performed on board the Russell and the guided-missile destroyer USS John S. McCain. An engineering development AWS computer program, designed for long-range detection and tracking of LRBMs, was an essential part of the installation. During Pacific Explorer II, the McCain participated while in port in Yokosuka, Japan, and in a fast cruise configuration with continuous watch rotations from March 2-5. Russell participated from in port at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

Once again, high-fidelity LRBM simulated space tracks were used. The McCain established full satellite connectivity with the BMDS command-and-control network from across the Pacific Ocean. Russell did the same from Hawaii. Many tests were successfully executed, demonstrating that the Navy can reliably transmit tracking data from halfway around the world in a timely manner to assist in the engagement of LRBMs.

As part of the initial deployment of the BMDS, five Pacific Fleet Aegis destroyers, the McCain, Curtis Wilbur, Fitzgerald, Stethem and Paul Hamilton, will have operational LRS&T upgrades installed by the end of this year. There will be a total of 15 LRS&T Aegis destroyers and three Aegis BMD engagement cruisers by the end of 2006. Also in 2006, five Aegis LRS&T destroyers will be upgraded to include the Block 2004 engagement capability. Sea Power 21, the Navy’s strategic plan, envisions a future fleet containing nine missile defense Surface Action Groups.

At the March National Missile Defense Conference, held in Washington D.C., Secretary of the Navy Gordon R. England said, “… The Navy will deploy in the Sea of Japan, beginning this September and on a virtually continuous basis thereafter, a guided-missile destroyer to serve as a LRS&T platform. … We will have cueing and target data from this region of the world that can be instantaneously shared with command-and-control and ground-based elements of our layered defense system.”

When asked about the LRS&T Mission, Adm. Walter Doran, Commander, U.S. Pacific Fleet, said “We will be ready.”

As a stakeholder of the initial BMDS, Aegis BMD is on-station, on alert, fulfilling presidential direction.

Rear Adm. Kathleen K. Paige is program director, Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense, Missile Defense Agency.