While planners worry about the proliferation of tactical ballistic missiles, deployed forces face a growing threat from helicopters and unmanned air vehicles (UAVs) that can evade air-superiority fighters. As a result, the US Army and Marine Corps want to replace their Stinger-based short-range systems with weapons giving extended air defence coverage.
The US Army's preferred solution is Raytheon's Surface-Launched AMRAAM (SLAMRAAM), already under development as the US Marine Corps' Complementary Low-Altitude Weapons System (CLAWS) and derived from HUMRAAM, the company's private-venture Humvee-mounted AMRAAM launcher.
HUMRAAM, in turn, is a development of the Raytheon/Kongsberg Norwegian Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System (NASAMS) - the first surface-launched application of the US company's AIM-120 AMRAAM medium-range air-to-air missile. NASAMS entered service in 1989 and was recently sold to Spain.
While NASAMS is a replacement for, or complement to, Raytheon's ageing Hawk missile system, HUMRAAM in its various forms is viewed as successor to Stinger-based systems, such as the Humvee-mounted Avenger and Bradley- mounted Linebacker. Compared with these systems, using the Raytheon Stinger short-range infrared-guided missile, HUMRAAM with its medium-range radar-guided missile increases coverage area by a factor of 20.
Four missiles are mounted on the Humvee, which is the most difficult installation to engineer because of the vehicle's weight limit, says Pete Thomson, manager medium/short-range systems. The launcher could also be installed on the US Army's new Stryker interim combat vehicle, the weight-carrying capabilities of which would allow an armoured box around the missiles, he says.
The US Marine Corps awarded Raytheon the CLAWS development contract last year and two production-representative launchers will be delivered later this year. The USMC requires 90-95 launchers, but a production decision depends on funding and testing, which is set to be completed in about a year, says Thomson.
The US Army is scheduled to approve the SLAMRAAM operational requirement this month. The service wants a system that can be deployed in the Lockheed Martin C-130 and provide its more manoeuvrable forces with extended air defence against cruise missiles, UAVs, large-calibre rockets and helicopters as well as fixed-wing aircraft.
The USMC contract includes options for over 1,000 systems which could be exercised for the US Army, says Thomson. Raytheon plans to develop a single launcher for both applications, the only difference being in communications. "We will build one launcher and swap out the radio. That makes it a software switch. The operator will sit at a laptop computer and energise the system as a CLAWS or a HUMRAAM," he says.
Surface-launched AMRAAM has an over-the-horizon capability. This was demonstrated in 2000 with a "forward pass" from the HUMRAAM to an aerostat-based radar which guided the missile to an intercept with a target beyond line of sight of the launcher.
Source: Flight International
