The US Navy’s fiscal 2023 budget request indicates the next increment of the service’s
air-launched, ship-killing missile will be named HALO or Hypersonic Air-Launched Offensive
Anti-Surface Warfare Missile.
The program’s name is the Offensive Anti-Surface Warfare Weapon (OASuW) Increment II, and the
US Navy recently published budget justification documents call its development a “national
imperative to maturing hypersonic capabilities.”
Viewers may note that OASuW Increment I resulted in the development of AGM-158C Long-Range
Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM), which is a subsonic design.
HALO will be the successor of LRASM which is being several different warplanes in recent
years, such as the Navy’s F/A-18 as well as the Air Force’s B-1B bomber.
In this video Defense Updates analyzes how US Navy plans upgrade its Anti Ship capability
with HALO?
Let's get started.
The U.S
has been fighting with adversaries that have no or very small navy like Iraq or Afghanistan.
All this while Russia and China were not on radar.
America was focusing on military assets that were more in line with these battles like
the development of drones.
This lead to a lull in the development of advance Anti-ship missile.
But things have changed, in the last decade, Russia & China have emerged as a critical
threat.
Both of these countries are actively pursuing ways to counter U.S Navy by developing a wide
variety of Anti-ship missiles.
As clear from Russian Black Sea fleet flagship Moskva's sinking, only a few anti ship missile
could potentially completely destroy or cripple a large surface combatant.
On April 19 the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) released a video clip depicting an
unknown missile being fired from a Type 055 guided-missile cruiser.
The new weapon presumed by most commentators to be an hypersonic anti-ship ballistic missile
is thought to be YJ-21.
The YJ-21 was fired from the warship Wuxi, a Type 055 cruiser that had been commissioned
in Qingdao just a month earlier, in March.
Its launch from an active-duty ship indicates the missile is almost certainly now in PLA
service
HALO “will be a higher-speed, longer range, air-launched weapon system providing superior
anti surface warfare capabilities,” according to the justification documents.
It was stated “OASuW Inc 2/HALO will address advanced threats from engagement distances
that allow the Navy to operate in, and control, contested battle space in littoral waters
and Anti-Access/Area Denial (A2/AD) environments.
It was added "To counter the evolving near-peer threat capability, OASuW Inc 2/HALO is required
to be fielded in FY 2028"
The US Navy is seeking $92 million in research and development funding for HALO in FY23.
The money will be used for things like starting a new missile technology development program,
making “targeted investments in maturing subsystem technologies,” and “component
or full-scale prototyping efforts,” according to the service.
The latter endeavor would, among other things, aid in the construction of a data link for
the weapon.
The service sought, but did not receive, approximately $56 million for similar research in the FY22
budget request.
A chart contained in the budget books indicates Halo is expected to reach “milestone B”
by the end of FY23.
Milestone B is an acquisition marker indicating a technology is cleared to begin producing
prototypes.
The budget books states that the program’s acquisition strategy will follow a “competitive,
phased approach” and that the service plans to engage “multiple vendors [to mature]
a design” in FY23.
An object is said to be hypersonic once they exceed speeds of Mach 5 or 5 times the speed
of sound.
This is about 1,715 meters per second or 3,836mph or 6,174 kmh.
Hypersonic weapons combine the high speed of a traditional ballistic missile with the
maneuverability of a cruise missile making them almost unstoppable with the currently
available air defense systems.
There are 3 methods being applied to make hypersonic weapons
1.
Using a Scramjet engine like the Russian Zircon missile
2.
Through the use of Hypersonic Glide Vehicle (HGV).
Examples of which are the Chinese DF-ZF, Russian Avangard and underdevelopment American ARRW
3.
Using ALBM or Air-Launched Ballistic missile like the Russian Kinzhal missile or ship launched
Ballistic missile like Chinese YJ-21.
HALO is the second major hypersonic weapon program the US Navy is undertaking
It is being developed alongside Conventional Prompt Strike (CPS)
The particular hypersonic weapon is projected to be fielded onboard a Zumwalt-class destroyer
in FY25, as well as a Virginia-class submarine in FY28.
CPS is being developed jointly by the Navy and Army and will have a surface, undersea
and land based variant.
America’s Government Accountability Office (GAO) 2019 report have stated that the U.S
currently lacks the defenses required to protect against the latest crop of hypersonic weapons
being developed by China and Russia,
The report states, “China and Russia are pursuing hypersonic
weapons because their speed, altitude, and maneuverability may defeat most missile defense
systems, and they may be used to improve long-range conventional and nuclear strike capabilities.
There are no existing countermeasures.”
Similarly Russia or China will find it very difficult to intercept hypersonic missiles
and this is why it is important for the US to develop them.
The US Navy’s budget plan for the fiscal year 2023 makes it apparent that HALO is critical
to the service’s capacity to conduct extended-range stand-off strikes against large threats in
highly contested environments in any future battle and rightly so.
As the hypersonic race intensifies, the US Navy is taking the correct steps to maintain
its dominance.