With a $241 million contract modification from the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) in December 2011 for continued engineering design and development work, the SM-3 Block IIA is on track for a 2018 deployment, according to Wes Kremer, vice president of Raytheon Missile Systems’ Air and Missile Defense Systems product line. More than 130 SM-3s had been delivered to the United States and Japanese navies by the end of 2011.

“The Standard is the U.S. Navy’s principal medium- and long-range air defense system and is likely to remain so for the next decade,” said Zaloga. “The thrust of Standard evolution has been changing over the past few years due to the dramatic changes on the world scene. While the Standard had formerly been focused on defeating the threat posed by Soviet strike aircraft firing antiship cruise missiles at carrier battlegroups, the decline of the Russian navy will lessen the urgency of these efforts.

“Standard will have to cope with the threat posed by weapons proliferation into the developing world … [and so] is beginning to wander into wholly new missions, notably anti-tactical ballistic-missile defense and even surface attack. The Navy is now beginning the SM-6 program aimed at dealing with the cruise missile threat, and Navy procurement plans envision converting Standard procurement to the SM-6 with the FY 12 production lot.”

One of the most venerable Navy missiles is the multi-variant Harpoon, a ship- (RGM-84), air- (AGM-84), and submarine-launched (UGM-84) antiship missile produced by Boeing, which has delivered more than 6,000 to date – about 45 percent to foreign customers. In 2009, the Navy cancelled development of a Block III version, intended as a Block IC upgrade with GPS and datalinks, but continues to study alternatives.

About that same time, DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) began funding a Long-Range Antiship Missile (LRASM) study, with Lockheed Martin winning the initial development contracts. Meanwhile, the AGM-84E SLAM (Stand-off Land-Attack Missile), with air-to-surface electro-optical guidance, was added to the Navy’s Harpoon derivative inventory.

“The LRASM program will invest in advanced component and integrated system technologies capable of providing a dramatic leap ahead in U.S. surface warfare capability, focusing on organic wide-area target discrimination in a network-denied environment, innovative terminal survivability in the face of advanced defensive systems, and high-assurance target lethality approaches,” according to a Teal Group assessment. “Specific technology development areas will include robust precision guidance, navigation, and control with GPS denial; multi-modal sensors for high-probability target identification in dense shipping environments and precision aim-point targeting for maximum lethality.

“Component technologies will be developed, demonstrated and integrated into a prototype demonstration weapon system. The sub-sonic RASM-A … is based on the JASSM-ER airframe; the supersonic LRASM-B option … apparently uses a new airframe and propulsion system. Both missiles employ a new seeker being developed by BAE Systems in Nashua, N.H., [the former Lockheed Saunders] and both are compatible with the Mk 41 VLS [Vertical Launch System]. The program was handed off to the Navy in FY 11 and is being funded under Power Projection Advanced Technology.”

One of the most imitated American naval missiles is the Tomahawk cruise missile, to which numerous Chinese, Russian, and other missiles inevitably are compared, often as part of their marketing campaign. Designed for launch from USN surface ships and U.S. and U.K. submarines, the long-range, all-weather subsonic Tomahawk Land Attack Missile (TLAM) can carry either nuclear or conventional payloads. Originally developed by General Dynamics, it was briefly co-produced by McDonnell Douglas and Raytheon, the current sole prime.

Through a series of block upgrades since its initial combat use during the first Gulf War in 1991, the Tomahawk has been upgraded with improved warheads, engines, navigation, and accuracy. That included the first use of GPS for missile guidance on the Block III version.

The current Block IV (TLAM-E) incorporates two-way satellite communications, enabling in-flight rerouting as well as missile health and status messages, faster launch capability, the ability to loiter over a general area pending redesignation to emerging targets, provision of battle damage assessment, and sending still images of the target or areas of interest along its flight path, and significantly reduced production costs. However, at 900 nautical miles, the TLAM-E has a significantly shorter range than the 1,350 nautical mile-range Block II TLAM-A.

Among foreign-built missiles described as being “Tomahawk class” are the Chinese C602, Taiwanese Hsiung Feng 2Em, and Russian 3M54E1, part of the Novatar “Club” missile family.

 

China

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union and Russia’s inability to retain or rebuild its naval forces, U.S. attention has increasingly focused on Asia, from defending sea lanes – from the Suez Canal and Mediterranean to the Persian Gulf, Straits of Malacca and Sea of Japan – to countering China’s growing “blue water” navy.

“Asia will be clearly a priority and we will adjust our operations accordingly,” Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jonathan Greenert told reporters in an October 2011 teleconference.

According to the Office of Naval Intelligence, for the past two decades, China has maintained an extensive naval modernization program, including antiship ballistic missiles (ASBMs), antiship cruise missiles (ASCMs), ship-based land-attack cruise missiles (LACMs) and surface-to-air missiles, manned and unmanned aircraft, submarines, aircraft carriers, destroyers, frigates, patrol craft, amphibious ships, and supporting C4ISR systems. In an era of increasing reliance on high-precision stand-off missiles, those efforts by the People’s Liberation Army (the umbrella organization for all Chinese military services) are of particular concern to the United States.