US Navy officials say new uses for existing munitions, as demonstrated with two recent novel deployments of the Raytheon BGM-109 Tomahawk cruise missile, should be sought as cost effective alternatives to expensive and time consuming development programmes.
Raytheon and the navy recently demonstrated that a Tomahawk block 4 could receive target updates midflight from an observer aircraft, allowing it to home in on moving targets.
In a January 27 live-fire test, a Tomahawk was launched from the destroyer USS Kidd on a pre-planned mission. A surveillance aircraft then sent real-time targeting information to the joint network enabled weapons mission management capability located in Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake, California. That facility then relayed the information to the missile, guiding it to strike a mobile ship target.
Targeting information was relayed using the missile’s existing UHF satellite communications datalink, a Raytheon spokesperson says. Initial reports indicated the surveillance aircraft was an F/A-18 Hornet.
“The targeting asset was not the Hornet, but actually a separate US Navy targeting aircraft operating at a significant range from the moving ship target using radar,” Raytheon says. “One of the key achievements of this test was demonstrating how rapidly this targeting information could be sent to the missile for a dynamic moving target.”
During 26 February testimony before the US House Appropriations Committee subcommittee on defence, Chief of Naval Operations Adm Jonathan Greenert says the demonstration was an example of how increased capability can be found in existing platforms.
“What’s cool about it is we have the weapon now, not in 2018,” Greenert says. “With a couple of changes to a datalink we already have, with a missile we already have, sensors we already have, just get them all talking on the same link and now you have that capability.”
The cost of firing a Tomahawk missile to strike moving target versus launching a manned aircraft mission is “a few million versus tens and tens of millions,” Greenert adds.
The test did not evaluate an enemy’s ability to jam the datalink signal between the aircraft, the fire control center and the missile, according to the Raytheon spokesperson.
During another test on 29 January, the USS Kidd launched another Tomahawk in support of Marines ashore in what amounts to a demonstration of the missile as sea-based artillery.
Using GPS navigational updates, the missile performed a vertical dive to impact on San Nicolas Island, scoring a direct hit on the target designated by the Marines, Raytheon says.
Though the test was successful, Commandant of the Marine Corps Gen Joseph Dunford said cruise missiles likely would not be a practical replacement for artillery or close air support.
“I can see where that Tomahawk missile would be helpful for a high-end operational target or a strategic target, but probably not the most effective weapons system for a tactical target or close air support,” Dunford says in his 26 February testimony.
Source: FlightGlobal.com
