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SM-6 MISSILES ARE AMERICA'S ONLY DEFENSE AGAINST HYPERSONIC WEAPONS MISSILE
DEFENSE CHIEF SAYS


THE US MILITARY'S ABILITY TO INTERCEPT HYPERSONIC WEAPONS, AS WELL AS JUST
DETECT AND TRACK THEM, REMAINS INCREDIBLY LIMITED AT BEST AS THREATS GROW.

By Joseph Trevithick February 3, 2022
 * The War Zone

USN
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Joseph Trevithick View Joseph Trevithick's Articles
@FranticGoat

U.S. Navy Vice Adm. Jon Hill, the head of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency, or
MDA, says that the multi-purpose SM-6 missile is the only weapon in the
country's arsenal at present that offers any ability to knock down
highly-maneuverable hypersonic threats. This comes after the agency disclosed
plans last year to test an unspecified version of the SM-6 against an "advanced
maneuvering threat," a term typically associated with unpowered hypersonic
boost-glide vehicles, sometime in the 2024 Fiscal Year.

Hill made his remarks about the SM-6 during a discussion about hypersonic
defense capabilities at the American Society of Naval Engineers' Combat Systems
Symposium, which opened on Jan. 31 and ends today. MDA is leading an effort to
develop a layered defense architecture against hypersonic threats that includes
an array of terrestrial and space-based sensors and multiple types of
interceptors, as you can read more about here.

USN

A US Navy warship fires an SM-6 missile.

The SM-6 series "is really the nation’s only hypersonic defense capability,"
Hill said, without specifying any particular version of this missile. He added
that these weapons have a "nascent capability" to engage incoming hypersonic
threats that are maneuvering to a high degree.

“We didn’t call it that back when we got the letter from the CNO [Chief of Naval
Operations, the Navy's top uniformed officer] to go develop this program," he
explained. "But the whole idea was to handle high-speed maneuver."


Navy SM-6 Missile Will Attempt To Swat Down A Mock Hypersonic Weapon By Joseph
Trevithick Posted in The War Zone
Missile Defense Agency Lays Out How It Plans To Defend Against Hypersonic
Threats By Brett Tingley and Joseph Trevithick Posted in The War Zone
China's Mysterious Hypersonic Weapon Can Stay In Orbit According To Space Force
General By Joseph Trevithick Posted in The War Zone
North Korea Claims To Have Tested A Hypersonic Missile (Updated) By Joseph
Trevithick Posted in The War Zone
Decommissioned Navy Cruisers Could Be The Answer To Guam's Missile Defense Needs
By Joseph Trevithick Posted in The War Zone

Hill's comments are immediately interesting for a number of reasons. Currently,
there are two variants of the SM-6 in service, the Block I and Block IA, while a
third version, the Block IB, is under development. The Block IB missile is
substantially different from the two earlier types, including its completely
redesigned body and a larger rocket motor. It is expected to be able to reach
hypersonic speed itself and therefore have greater capabilities against
hypersonic threats. 

Raytheon

An SM-6 Block I or Block IA missile on the production line at Raytheon.

The Block I and Block IA missiles are generally described as surface-to-air
missiles, though they also have a surface-to-surface strike capability. In
addition, they do have missile defense capabilities, but which are more
typically described as the ability to engage incoming cruise missiles, as well
as more traditional ballistic missiles or separate re-entry vehicles they
release in the terminal phase of flight. 

It is important to note that those targets are traveling at hypersonic speeds at
that point, but that even advanced maneuvering types would not be as nimble as a
purpose-built hypersonic boost-glide vehicle. In addition, boost-glide vehicles
travel along an atmospheric trajectory compared to more conventional ballistic
threats, which also makes them more difficult to spot and track.


GAOI

A graphic offering a very rudimentary comparison of the flight characteristics
of an unpowered hypersonic boost-glide vehicle compared to a more traditional
ballistic missile. A typical flight trajectory for an air-breathing hypersonic
cruise missile is also depicted here.

What Hill appears to have disclosed now is that the Block I and IA missiles
already have at least some degree of capability against these more maneuverable
hypersonic threats, or were at least designed with that capability in mind from
the outset. It is possible that only some SM-6s currently in service have this
particular ability, as well, which might be the product of post-delivery
modifications. Beyond that, the envelope in which an existing SM-6 is able to
engage hypersonic threats could easily still be very small and the missile might
only be effective at all against certain specific types of targets.

The U.S. Navy fired a pair of what have been referred to as SM-6 Dual IIs, a
ballistic missile defense-optimized subvariant of either the Block I or Block
IA, during an MDA-led test last year. Those interceptors failed to knock down a
surrogate for a traditional medium-range ballistic missile.



All told, whatever capability existing SM-6s might have against hypersonic
threats would still appear to be limited. MDA is actively pursuing a new
interceptor optimized against things like boost-glide vehicles as part of the
Glide Phase Interceptor (GPI) program. In November 2021, Raytheon, Lockheed
Martin, and Northrop Grumman received contracts to build competing GPI designs.
Raytheon is the prime contractor behind the SM-6 series.

Raytheon

Artwork that Raytheon released in relation to its submission to the Glide Phase
Interceptor (GPI) program.

Interceptors of any kind are, of course, just one part of the hypersonic defense
equation. Sensors able to detect and provide target-grade tracks of those
threats are essential. The U.S. military has already identified gaps in its
capabilities in this regard and is working to fill them, including through the
development of a space-based Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor
(HBTSS). MDA has hired both Northrop Grumman and L3Harris to build prototype
HBTSS satellites with the goal of starting on-orbit testing of the two designs
in 2023. What the final HBTSS constellation might look like and how many
satellites it might have, in total, remains unclear. 

Northrop Grumman

A graphic from Northrop Grumman showing how its HBTSS satellite would fit into a
larger space-based sensor architecture to support hypersonic defense operations.

“We’re going to take those first hypersonic tracking space-based sensors in
coordination with the U.S. Space Force and we’re going to get them on in orbit,”
Vice Adm. Hill said in regards to HBTSS at the Combat Systems Symposium. “That’s
through a competitive process and we’re really excited about that. We did so
much risk-reduction on the ground we’re absolutely confident that those sensors
are going to deliver what we need when we put them up.” 

“We’re going to leverage space cueing and fire control from space because, to
handle maneuvers across the globe, you’ve got to look down” Hill explained,
emphasizing the importance of added sensor capabilities in space. The “field of
view is limited from [terrestrial] radars and we’re running out of islands to
put radars on." 



Terrestrial sensors are “not always in the exact right place, because many of
them are land-based and stationary," he added.

HBTSS is only one of a number of space-based sensor programs underway within the
U.S. military that could support missile defense missions. This includes an
effort that the Space Development Agency (SDA) is leading that is exploring the
possibility of deploying a distributed space-based sensor and data-sharing
network using smaller satellites.

MDA has already outlined how new and old satellites could be used to expand the
capabilities surface-based interceptors, either launched from ships or
land-based sites, against hypersonic threats. With cueing from those systems, a
launch platform would be able to conduct so-called engage-on-remote and
launch-on-remote type intercepts that do not rely entirely, or at all, on its
own organic sensors. You can read more about these concepts here.



Expanding hypersonic defense capabilities has become an important area of focus
for the U.S. military as these threats become more pronounced and continue to
proliferate. Russia and China have both fielded missiles tipped with hypersonic
boost-glide vehicles, as well as more traditional ballistic missiles with
advanced maneuvering capabilities, and continue to develop other related
capabilities. Last year, it emerged that the Chinese have been testing a
particularly novel fractional orbital bombard system that utilizes a hypersonic
vehicle of some kind.

In addition, in the past year or so, North Korea has demonstrated that it is at
least attempting to develop its own hypersonic boost-glide vehicle capability,
as well as ballistic missiles carrying more conventional re-entry vehicles with
improved maneuverability. Iran appears to be trying to follow suit, at least in
regards to the development of more advanced maneuverable re-entry vehicles, as
well.



Vice Adm. Hill did stress that existing sensor capabilities can still provide
some degree of detection and tracking against hypersonic threats. “We’re seeing
them, we’re capturing data, we’re collecting on them," he said. "We’re not at
zero."

According to Hill, at least for the moment, SM-6 missiles offer the only option,
however limited, to then try to destroy those threats.

Contact the author: joe@thedrive.com


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MORE TO READ
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