ESSM / Burke combo

ESSM_4 dummies

Hi Totoro,
you sound so well informed on the ESSM subject!
I’ve got a question, being dead interested as well : I read in a magazine that the ESSM could not be fired by wind upper to 35 knots. It adorned me low. What’s happened against divers?
In the same magazine, i read that the minimal distance of interception is 2.5 nqs, because of the high speed of the missile. Is that true?
Thanks mate!

http://www.hnsa.org/doc/pdf/fc2.pdf

INformative, thank you much sir!

http://www.hnsa.org/doc/pdf/fc2.pdf

I think we all agree here that is exactly what it does. Now the only question is just how many seconds is those “last few seconds”? I do imagine that might slightly change not only due to things i listed in my previous post but also on how hard the incoming ashm is manouvering. I have read some article by Karlo Kopp where he was talking about aegis and he claimed that time is usually 4-5 seconds for manouvering subsonics. He did not cite any sources for that claim, though.

I’d swear I’ve read the Aegis can time share illuminators right up to the last few seconds.

the burkes have 3 spg-62 illuminators and the ticos 4. imho both can use 3 to each side, maybe the ticos can also use the fourth one, if it’s not completly masked by the other illuminator. pointing to targets behind or in front of the ships will usually only allow two illuminators to be used. (burke only one for targets in front of the ship?) i’m not sure how much small superstructures will effect the usage of the illuminators.
it’s plenty speculative but imho the rcs of a target should not effect the time of terminal illumination that much.

Thank you very much for your input! So, illuminators are a physically different entities from the spy radars? How many of them are there on a Burke and how many of them could be steered towards just one side of the ship? Also, do you have any idea just how long does that terminal guidance illumination take for a harpoon sized ashm? 1, 2, 3, 4 or more seconds? Also, would it take longer if the target is flying lower over the sea or if sea state is rough or if target itself had a reduced RCS?

from my knowledge there is no interrupted continuous wave illumination (icwi) on the aegis ships. this feature is unique to the apar equipted ships.
both sm-2 and essm are first controlled by mid course updates which is provided by the spy1 (not the illuminators). imho these mid course updates are based on a two way data link and not on illuminating the target. the illuminators take the control for the last seconds and each illuminator paints a single target for the missile with continuous wave illumination. the illuminators can not switch between targets for icwi because they are mechanical steered.

I know it was designed for it, i was just trying to make a point that, since it does seem to be THE most useful asm system in USN, fielding it in such small numbers is just a bit… silly. Sure, a standard could perhaps do a similar job but it would be wasted in that role, compared to an ESSM. Let standards deal with far away, high altitude targets like airplanes and leave sea skimmers to ESSM. That said, 24 ESSMs per Burke may be too little. There’s always USN fighters to take care of enemy planes, making for less of a need for a large number of standards on a Burke or Tico.

As for all the other questions i posed in my intial post, would you say they are probable or there simply is no information available to know either way?

You mean as in 24 total, just VLS 6 canisters? That, if true, seems like an awfully low figure.

Yes, to both.

ESSM seem perfectly suited for defense of the ship from sea skimming anti ship missiles

Well that is what it was designed for.

whereas standard missile would be a pricey overkill in such a scenario. Depending on how many missiles it takes to shoot down an incoming asm, it may prove an inadequate number against a large scale attack, various decoys and jammers notwithstanding.

Standard has a much longer range though ESSM is pretty much a medium range missile in it’s own right.

You mean as in 24 total, just VLS 6 canisters? That, if true, seems like an awfully low figure. ESSM seem perfectly suited for defense of the ship from sea skimming anti ship missiles whereas standard missile would be a pricey overkill in such a scenario. Depending on how many missiles it takes to shoot down an incoming asm, it may prove an inadequate number against a large scale attack, various decoys and jammers notwithstanding.

Try more like 24 ESSMs per Burke/Tico

Not trying to be revolutionary here but I guess I’ll have to answer to myself. Still, most of these are just rumors and guesses so feel free to point out to some more official or just more realistic figures.

1. Yes.

2. Yes.

3. It swithces between targets, circling through them, painting each for a fraction of a second.

4. While midcourse updates might require just fraction of a second, very terminal guidance does seem to need continous illumination. In that regard, each ESSM requires 2 seconds of dedicated illumination time before final interception. It also means that there can not be two simultaneous hits with just one illuminator.

5. Two seconds between each launch, per whole mk 41 module.

6. Yes. Also, since 2 illuminators will be covering one side of a ship, two simultaneous intercepts are also possible, or even 4, if missiles are approaching from different sides.

7. Out of 96 tubes, with tomahawks and standards and what not occupying some, 20 seems a decent number, making for altogether 80 ESSMs per Burke.

8. Unable to compute. 😀 Though, seeing how illuminators are positioned some 18 meters above water, and calculating an incoming missile at 5 m altitude, it is very safe to assume ESSM can engage such a target all the way to the horizon, in this case some 28 km.

9. Guesstimation of one missile per second per RAM system.