The U.S. Navy is planning to integrate the Naval Strike Missile onto at least one amphibious
warfare ship. This is part of a larger effort to look at
ways to increase the firepower of these types of warships.
Though the exact technical details are not available since it is still being conceptualized,
it is likely that deck mounted proprietary canister launcher could be used to get the
job done.
Viewers may note that U.S Navy has 11 San Antonio class warships in active service and
Naval Strike Missile has already been integrated into Littoral Combat Ship or LCSs through
a proprietary canister launcher.
This is an interesting move and comes after the San Antonio class warship USS Portland
was outfitted with a laser weapon.
In this video Defense Updates analyzes how U.S Navy plans to augment the firepower of
the San Antonio class landing platform dock with the addition of the Naval Strike Missile?
Let's get started
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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
the radar. America was focusing on military assets that were more in line with these battles
like the development of drones.
But things have changed, in the last decade, Russia & China have emerged as critical threat.
Both of these countries have strong navies and are actively pursuing ways to counter
the U.S Navy by developing a wide variety of Anti-ship missiles.
Even second-tier powers like Iran has been pursuing the development of a wide range of
Anti-ship missile.
So, it is paramount that the U.S warship has the ability to take out opponents.
The move also aligns with the U.S Navy's Distributed Lethality concept that aims to disperse firepower
across different platforms.
U.S. Marine Corps Major General Tracy King, the head of the Expeditionary Warfare division
within the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations has outlined the concept.
King said, “We have these magnificent 600-foot-long, highly survivable ... LPD 17s,”
He added, "I suspect what you will see in the next year that we will probably test-fire
a system off of an L-class ship and let the fleet play around with it, build up the doctrine
on how we will use it and to confirm or deny whether it is worth the expense, which we
think it is. We need the operators to confirm that."
He explained further, “The LPDs need the ability to reach out and defend themselves
and sink another ship," Major General King explained. "It’s not from the aspect of
using them as a strike platform; it will drastically increase their survivability if the enemy
has to honor that threat."
LPD 17 is the hull number of the first San Antonio class landing platform dock.
San Antonio class is a class of amphibious transport docks, also called a Landing Platform
Dock (LPD).
USS San Antonio (LPD-17), the lead ship of her class was commissioned on 14 January 2006
The San Antonio class was designed to provide the U.S Navy and U.S. Marine Corps with a
modern, sea-based platform that is networked, survivable, and built to operate with 21st
century transformational platforms, such as the MV-22 Osprey.
The warships of this class are 684ft-long and 105ft-wide. The class is designed to be
LO (Low Observable) and has features that reduce radar cross-section.
It is capable of transporting U.S. Marines, amphibious vehicles, conventional landing
craft, and rotary aircraft. This means it has the capability to support
amphibious assault, special operations, or expeditionary warfare missions.
The warship of this class also provides a high-quality command and control capability
and improved interoperability between U.S forces and partners in the region.
It is packed with different kinds of sensors. The ship’s enclosed main mast consists of
two large eight-sided structures. The mast houses the radar and communications components
like antennae and has a hybrid frequency-selective surface.
The ship’s radars package consists of an ITT AN / SPS-48E 3D air search radar operating
at C / D band, Lockheed Martin’s AN / APQ-9B surface surveillance and tracking radar operating
at I band, Raytheon’s AN / SPS-64(V)9 navigation radar operating at I band and two Northrop
Grumman Norden Systems AN/SPS-73 surface search radars operating at I-band.
The San Antonio design was originally supposed to have two eight-cell Mk 41 Vertical Launch
System Arrays (VLS).
The idea was to pack each of the 16 VLS cells with a quad-pack of RIM-162 Evolved Sea Sparrow
Missiles (ESSM) surface-to-air missiles.
This is being reexamined to add Tomahawk cruise missiles to support Marines ashore with little
modification to the combat system.
Currently, ships are armed with two Rolling Airframe Missile (RAM) launchers, as well
as a pair of turreted 30mm automatic cannons, for close-in defense.
Naval Strike Missiles or NSM is a potent Anti Ship Missile.
It is the upgrade of Kongsberg’s Penguin short-to-medium range anti-ship guided missile.
The missile has a range of 100 miles or 185 km.
NSM is capable of high subsonic speeds.
It has sea skim mode by which it travels very close to the surface, making it hard to detect
and intercept. It is also designed to maneuver to avoid enemy defenses.
It is equipped with 276 pounds or 125 kg multi-purpose blast/fragmentation warhead.
NSM features an imaging IR-seeker which is complimented by inertial/GPS navigation.
The missile also has a built-in database of representative ship types to distinguish between
intended targets and other objects.
Importantly it can be used for taking out land targets too.
There have been several deliberations in the past about the feasibility of installing the
Mk 41 Vertical Launch System or other weapon systems on the San Antonio class warships.
The USS Portal was outfitted with a 150-kilowatt laser system and is currently in the process
of testing. This is a significant upgrade from the 30-kilowatt
Laser Weapon System or LaWS, that the U.S Navy tested on the amphibious transport dock
ship USS Ponce about five years ago.
So, there has been constant effort to improve the capabilities of these platforms.
The addition of Naval Strike Missile will provide the San Antonios with the capability
to defend themselves against naval threats.
It remains to be seen how things pan out in the coming days.