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. *
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