JDW: Mobile boost phase interceptor being designed

Look for a possible sale to Taiwan in the future, IMO.

Date Posted: 16-Apr-2004

JANE’S DEFENCE WEEKLY – APRIL 21, 2004

——————————————————————————–

Boost-phase interceptor will deploy to hot spots
MICHAEL SIRAK JDW Staff Reporter
Washington, DC

Northrop Grumman says it is designing the next-generation mobile boost- phase missile defence system for the US so that it can deploy to global hot spots like East Asia or the Near East on short notice. The key goal will be to box in looming long-range ballistic missile threats to prevent them from reaching the US and its allies.

The company is leading an industry team to develop the Kinetic Energy Interceptor (KEI) system under an eight-year $4.5 billion contract it won from the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) in December 2003 (JDW 10 December 2003).

Daniel Montgomery, Northrop Grumman’s vice president and KEI programme manager, said one land-based KEI battery will be able to deploy anywhere worldwide within 24 hours aboard seven C-17 Globemaster III transport aircraft. Once on station, the unit will be operational within three hours, he noted.

“If we locate our launchers … in the right place, one or maybe two batteries will close down North Korea as a launch area targeting the United States,” he said on 13 April. “Before any threat out of North Korea aimed at the United States finishes its boost phase of flight, we can kill it.”

One KEI battery will consist of five mobile launchers, each holding two three-stage fast-acceleration interceptor missiles, and six High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles carrying the system’s double-redundant command-and-control, battle management and communications (C2BMC) element. There is also a truck that carries the unit’s four S-band antennas. The system has no dedicated sensors, but will link instead with the existing network of satellites and terrestrial-based radars.

The company is focused on demonstrating a mobile land-based variant that could knock down intermediate- and long-range ballistic missiles while they are boosting or after booster burnout, while they are still accelerating, but before they have released their warheads. Intercept flight testing of this variant is expected to start in 2009, with an operational system available around 2010, if the MDA opts to field it.

The focus will then shift to a sea-based variant that could be available around 2012 for use on Aegis cruisers, next-generation surface ships like the CG(X) cruiser or submarines like the SSGN. A third configuration, envisaged around 2014, will add an enhanced kill vehicle so the interceptor can engage missiles in their mid-course phase of flight – after release of warheads – and in the early stage of the terminal phase as the missiles prepare to re-enter the atmosphere. Silo-basing is an option for this configuration, according to programme officials.

The KEI missile is designed to accelerate quickly and reach its maximum speed of around 6km per second within 60 seconds, said Montgomery. The company is developing a common missile canister for all basing variants.

The system’s concept of operation is to fire two interceptors in rapid succession against a target.

Montgomery said “a small number of launchers”, either land-based, aboard ships or a combination of both, would have the same nullifying effect on Iran. Because of that country’s greater size, KEIs would not be able to reach all missiles in their boost phase and would have to chase them down in their ascent or mid-course phases.

The interceptor will fit within the space of the Vertical Launch System on Aegis ships, but will have to be placed at a 30º angle and will protrude above the deck about 3.5ft (1.1m), he said.

A key tenant of the programme is to leverage the technology of existing missile defence systems to the extent possible. The kill vehicle on the interceptor uses the seeker from the Standard Missile 3, for example.

The third mid-course-capable KEI configuration would complement, and perhaps replace, the Ground-Based Interceptor of the Ground-based Midcourse Defense element that is expected to be operational before the end of 2004.

*** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. It is being made available without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance their understanding of arms trade activities, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. I believe that this constitutes a ‘fair use’ of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use,’ you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
For more information go to:
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml