Lake Erie Gets an Upgrade

From Lockheed Martin.

Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT] installed the latest evolution of the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) System - which includes a new ballistic missile defense signal processor, Aegis BSP - on the cruiser USS Lake Erie (CG-70). Over the next year, USS Lake Erie will complete a series of tests, leading up to full certification of the system upgrade by the U.S. Navy in early 2011.

The Aegis BMD 4.0.1 system represents the next incremental capability upgrade that has been the hallmark of Aegis and its “build a little, test a little, learn a lot” systems engineering philosophy. The upgrade’s new Aegis BSP processor improves the system's ability to detect, track and target complex ballistic missiles and their associated countermeasures. The addition of BMD 4.0.1 also integrates the new Standard Missile-3 Block IB missile in late 2010.

“The signal processor is a major technical advance for Aegis BMD before it merges with the Navy’s Aegis Modernization Program’s fully open architecture, multi-mission combat system,” said Orlando Carvalho, vice president and general manager of Lockheed Martin’s Surface/Sea-Based Missile Defense line of business. “The continued Aegis program emphasis on systems engineering excellence supports the Navy’s desire to expand BMD capability to additional cruisers and destroyers, and grow missile defense capability to pace the threat.”

While USS Lake Erie begins advanced testing with Aegis BMD 4.0.1 to support 2011 certification timeline, the other U.S. Navy Aegis BMD-capable ships are now installing the recently-certified Aegis BMD 3.6.1 version that adds the capability to defeat short-range ballistic missiles as they re-enter the atmosphere in their final (terminal) stage of flight to the existing exo-atmospheric capability. The ongoing develop-test-field process provides incremental enhancements that continue to build on each other and move new capability to the fleet faster. Three additional U.S. East Coast-based Aegis-equipped ships also will receive Aegis BMD 3.6.1 to perform ballistic missile defense by early 2010.

The Missile Defense Agency and the Navy are jointly developing Aegis BMD as part of the United States’ Ballistic Missile Defense System (BMDS). Currently, a total of 20 Aegis BMD-equipped warships - 18 in the U.S. Navy and two in the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force - have the certified capability to engage ballistic missiles and perform long-range surveillance and track missions.

USS Lake Erie (CG 70) is the cruiser that shot down the US 193 satellite last February. The SM-3 Block IB will incorporate a two-color, all reflective infrared seeker, enabling longer range acquisition and increased threat discrimination. A Throttleable DACS (TDACS) is also in development to provide a more flexible and lower cost alternative to the SDACS.

The Aegis BMD 3.6.1 version currently in the fleet is one of, if not the, most advanced anti ballistic missile capabilities in the world. The AEGIS ballistic missile defense engagement capability (PDF) is capable of defeating short to intermediate range, unitary and separating, midcourse phase, ballistic missile threats with the Standard Missile-3 (SM-3), as well as short range ballistic missiles in the terminal phase with the SM-2. Throughout the testing of AEGIS BMD, each test progressively increases the operational realism and complexity of targets and scenarios. To date, there have been 18 successful intercepts in 22 Missile Defense Agency/Navy tests and Navy operational firings. This includes SM-3 and SM-2 firings and the satellite shootdown of February 2008.

Aegis BMD 4.0.1 represents a significant evolution forward for ballistic missile defense, and a promising example why the changes to ballistic missile defense by Secretary Gates, to shift ballistic missile defense to the proven systems including AEGIS ballistic missile defense, is a wise move towards supporting realistic capabilities that work. As this blog has highlighted in the past, between FY1995 and FY2007, the Missile Defense Agency had invested a total of $7,012,400,000 in AEGIS ballistic missile defense, an average of a around $585M per year. Compared to the total MDA budget over the same period, this is an incredibly small annual percentage spent on AEGIS BMD compared to other BMD capabilities MDA focused on. Between FY08-FY13, under the Bush administration the MDA intended to spend about 7%, around $6.5B of its estimated $51B total budget on AEGIS ballistic missile defense.

The Obama administration has made significant changes to ballistic missile defense, starting with the FY2010 budget but the discussion continues in the QDR as the DoD seeks a BMD strategy that the nation can afford with tightening budgets. Most of the decisions to date suggest that legitimate support for working ballistic missile defense like the AEGIS BMD capability is gaining momentum, and I believe a final decision that turns ballistic missile defense into a primary naval capability has real potential for expanding the US national capability for defense against ballistic missile threats with a higher degree of cost certainty, return on cost investment, but also operational flexibility leveraging the global posture of forward naval forces that can use this capability to support allies and protect overseas assets as well as the homeland.

Well done to the good folks at Lockheed Martin and Raytheon who working on this much needed evolution for our existing naval forces.

Coulda - Shoulda - Woulda - Didn't

A Type 45 article worth reading in full. Love the ending...

Mao For Power Projection

Christian Science Monitor Global News blog has a post up with analysis of 2 polls in China regarding... What to name China's first aircraft carrier.

Neutral names, such as Beijing or Shanghai, don’t appeal to people at all. More popular are the names of islands, such as Taiwan, Diaoyu, or Nansha.

This is awkward, though, because what they all have in common is that they are disputed territory. Taiwan is de facto independent, Diaoyu is known as Senkaku in Japan, and Nansha is better known as the Spratlys, a sprinkle of islands claimed not only by China, but also the Philippines, Vietnam, Taiwan, Malaysia, and Brunei.

On the other hand, naming an aircraft carrier - which would be the jewel of China’s naval crown - for a disputed island fits well with the general principles that respondents to the polls thought should guide the choice.

Thirty percent thought the name should “present China’s comprehensive national strength.” Only 6.9 percent wanted to “avoid the impression of a military threat.”

But which was the runaway favorite in two polls conducted earlier this month? Mao Zedong.

Casual observers could get caught up in this, but it all sounds very British to me. Nelson's flagship was HMS Victory, the implication being he had no intention of ever losing. HMS Warspite fought at Jutland, and even the light aircraft carriers the Royal Navy fielded in the cold war was the Invincible-class aircraft carriers. Names like Resolution, Vanguard, Warrior, and Revenge were ship names that embodied the spirit of the Royal Navy.

In 1907, upon completion of the worlds most powerful ship, the British named her HMS Dreadnought to insure the rest of the world got the message regarding the ships military might.

It isn't just the British though, place a pitcher of beer in the middle of a round table of retired naval officers, particularly naval aviators, and I assure you the only thing that will be concluded in a naming debate of US Navy aircraft carriers by the time the beer is gone is that naming aircraft carriers after Presidents is a mistake... but other than that, the debate will not be settled.

In the fine tradition of first rate power naval power projection, for the Chinese - the name Mao fits.

"Somali Pirate Takedown - The Real Story"

Did anyone see this? I note it is on tonight at 9pm on the military channel. TV is hit and miss for me, often missing the ocean from the beach...

Watch? Leave a recommendation if you have seen it.

Pirates Release Dutch Ship, Navy Discovers Crew Casualties

The Dutch ship MV Marathon has been released by her pirate hijackers off the coast of Somalia. The revelations upon release suggest a struggle during the hijacking left 1 crew member dead and 8 wounded. This is the AFP story.

Somali pirates shot dead a Ukrainian sailor during the hijack of a Dutch ship, the Dutch defence ministry said, adding that rescuers discovered the body when the ship was released Tuesday.

The pirates released the MV Marathon, which had been held since May 7 when the crewman was killed. The Dutch navy found the body when a warship met the vessel after it cleared the Somali coast.

Another of the eight crew members was wounded, ministry spokesman Marcel Pullen told AFP.

Pullen said the man was killed when the pirates took the vessel on May 7 in the Gulf of Aden. "The crew are all Ukrainian. They are all exhausted," he said.

The MV Marathon was being escorted to a "safe port" by the Dutch frigate De Zeven Provincien, the spokesman said, refusing to reveal the location.

It is unclear if the condition of the crew was known during negotiations, and the use of the word discovery by the Dutch suggests the Dutch Navy was unaware, even if the negotiators were. This doesn't really represent an escalation of the dangers of piracy, the dangers have always existed, it is just this time the pirates actually hit who they were shooting at.

It is also unclear if the crew attempted to fight back from this early information, but the details would suggest they did, unsuccessfully. This is not the first time a crew member of a western flagged ship has died during an act of piracy off Somalia, but it is the first time in a long time.