Several readers have sent me info on an existing system deployed by the Russians on their newest subs called SUBSAM. This is an IR missile, supposedly a modified-for-sea SA-14 Gremlin, held within a vertical launch tube inside the sail, intended to be launched against an ASW aircraft which is in attack against the submarine.
The advantage of the IR seeker is that no external targeting is required. Used alone at sea, the ASW aircraft would be the only target available for the missile to lock on to.
The disadvantage of the sail launched IR missile is that the sub must come shallow to execute the launch, and the launch itself reveals the sub's exact position. The latter is a small loss in a one-on-one scenario assuming the missile hits the target.
Obviously, the canister launch system greatly reduces the risk to the sub by allowing the sub to stay deeper and to be somewhere else when the missile itself breaks the surface.
Several readers have emailed me that a new U.S. SUBSAM is in development, and is currently under testing, but obviously, this remains unconfirmed at this time.
Meanwhile, its worth noting that the enhanced type 688 submarine includes 12 vertical launch tubes forward of the sail which are admitted to handle Tomahawk and Harpoon. The Mark 41 surface launcher handles Tomahawk and Harpoon and Sea Sparrow and Standards with the same sized tube.
A 688 Los Angeles Class submarine launching using VLS (Vertical Launch System).
The following web page, from
`HTTP://www.pica.army.mil/orgs/fsac/sad/1997/janfeb/art3pg2.html
reveals that the Navy agenda is for increased use of missiles deployed
from submarines.
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Naval Surface Fires and the Land Battle
This article, by O. Kelly Blosser, appeared on pages 46-50 of the
September-October 1996 issue of FA Journal
The Navy must remain the dominant naval force in the maritime or "blue
water" regions of the world where the US has special interests or
allies. In addition, strategic employment of the sea services,
including the Marine Corps, is now being focused on naval
expeditionary force operations over a continuum from peacetime forward
presence through crisis response to regional conflict.
In concert with the strategic concept for naval force employment, an
over-arching concept of naval fires is being developed by the Naval
Doctrine Command to guide the future development and use of naval
weapons to project power near and over land in the littorals.
Components of naval fires include carrier- and land-based tactical
aviation and their air-to-ground weaponry and naval surface combatants
and submarines launching tactical land attack weapons. Mobile Marine
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Corps artillery batteries employed as elements in a rapidly
maneuvering expeditionary force also could be considered a naval fires
component.
Naval surface combatants, including cruisers and destroyers, the focus
of this article, are key components of this new drive to increase the
Navy's ability to project power from the sea in the littoral
environment. The Tomahawk land attack missile (TLAM) launched from
surface combatants and submarines is a proven weapon for strike
^^^^^^^^^^
missions. Naval gunfire from surface combatants is one of three
traditional supporting arms for amphibious assault operations.
For the future, new surface ship launched land attack weapons are being
developed or adapted for land attack, and mission planning and
coordination capabilities will be improved to provide a true joint
capability. The scope of operations for this system will include
independent surface strikes from the sea, fire support for Marine
Corps or joint amphibious operations and fires supporting the air-land
battle. Naval surface-launched weapons will contribute to the land
battle as well as to expeditionary operations in the littorals.
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Traditional Naval Gunfire Support
In our history, naval firepower from surface combatants contributed to
the success of military actions in nearly all littoral operations.
Naval guns from destroyers, cruisers and battleships were employed to
destroy and disrupt enemy shore defenses in support of amphibious
assault operations, conduct shore bombardment missions against enemy
coastal installations and transportation and, occasionally, to support
a maritime flank of a land campaign.
Traditional naval gunfire fire support (NGFS) encompassed all naval
guns from 3-inch to 16-inch to support amphibious operations and
contribute to the land battle (as long as the objectives were on or
near the coast). Navy surface combatants today have one or two
5-inch/54-caliber gun Mark 45 guns with ballistic ammunition that can
fire to a maximum range of about 14 nautical miles (NM) but with a
much shorter effective range for precision fire.
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Naval Surface Fires and the Land Battle
The newest Arleigh Burke (DDG-51 Class) destroyers have a modern fire
control system. Using global positioning systems (GPS), these ships
can obtain a precise fix on their own positions instead control
system. Using global positioning systems (GPS), these ships can obtain
a precise fix on their own positions instead of using dead reckoning
or navigational references in in-shore waters.
However, fire support planning and coordination on the most modern
cruiser and destroyer are still accomplished with a plot team and
charts. Voice or naval text-formatted teletype messages provide
communications between separate elements of the organization.
Coordination conducted by the supporting arms coordination center
(SACC) on amphibious command ships is done much as it was done in
World War 11; its a manual, man-intensive operation using charts,
maps, overlays and 3x5-inch file cards.
[INLINE] Courtesy of United Defense Artist's conception of the new
5-inch/54 Mark 45 gun shield configuration; modifications to the gun
will allow it to fire the ERGM 63 NM.
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The Marine Corps is attempting to bring automated support aboard some
amphibious command ships by installing its initial fire support
automation system (IFSAS). However, while IFSAS can communicate with
other fire support elements (FSEs) via several commo systems, current
Marine and Navy architectures aboard amphibious ships only support an
IFSAS interface through the VHF single-channel ground and air radio
system (SINCGARS).
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Naval Surface Fire Support
In 21st century concepts of war fighting, our current naval weapons and
the planning and coordination process, communications and organization
will be inadequate in range, firepower and response to support
operations from a seabase. The Marine Corps' new doctrine of
Operational Maneuver From the Sea (OMFTS) stresses the use of rapid,
decisive action with firepower and maneuver from the sanctuary of a
seabase. US Army combat in the 21st century will be characterized by
"full-dimensional operations" over an expanded battlefield; depth,
simultaneous attack and the use of decisive firepower to support
dominant maneuver are the underpinnings of the Force XXI concept.
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Naval Surface Fires and the Land Battle
In response to these new requirements, NGFS has been replaced in the
naval lexicon by naval surface fire support (NSFS) to denote the
expanded role asked of surface combatants. NSFS is the "fire provided
by navy surface gun, missile and electronic warfare systems in support
of a unit or units tasked with achieving the commander's objectives"
(Joint Pub 3-02 Joint Doctrine for Amphibious Operations).
Weapon systems are being developed to provide surface combatants a
greatly expanded capability to place ordnance rapidly and precisely on
and around the expanded battlefield of the future. The concept of a
system of systems is very applicable to the problem of evolving NGFS
systems to the NSFS system of the future. Advances in the technology
will give us effective weapons, and the judicious adaptation of other
joint systems could provide automated mission planning and fire
coordination. Adapting joint systems would allow us to operate
"seamlessly" with Marine and joint land forces to provide firepower
when and where needed.
The development of these new weapons is being paced by a program of
critical experiments and demonstrations aimed at modernizing Navy
tools for planning and coordination. Weapon development has the
momentum provided by funding while development of the supporting
system is in a conceptual phase.
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NSFS Weapons
The current Navy weapons program managed by the NSFS Program Office
(PMS-429) of the Naval Sea Systems Command will develop and field an
enhanced extended-range, guided munition Ex-171 (ERGM) fired from a
modified 5-inch/62-caliber Mark 45 gun mount. Required but unfunded is
the need to adapt and modify an existing missile airframe to provide a
tactically responsive land attack missile.
[INLINE] Courtesy of Texas Instruments Conceptual ERGM
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The Ex-171 ERGM is being developed to meet near-term Marine Corps
requirements for a weapon to support expeditionary operations, to
initially take the place of and later supplement artillery in the
close battle and to engage in counterfire against enemy indirect
artillery. ERGM will incorporate a rocket motor to reach an objective
range of 63 NM and an inertial guidance system (INS)/GPS to accurately
place the weapon and a submunition warhead to attack a broad range of
battlefield targets. It is scheduled to complete initial operational
capability (IOC) testing in September 2000.
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Naval Surface Fires and the Land Battle
TLAM, the only conventional surface and submarine-launched land attack
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
weapon, has been used in strike, interdiction and suppression of enemy
air defense (SEAD) missions in Desert Storm and Bosnia. The missile
employs GPS mid-course guidance and digital scene matching and area
correlation (DSMAC) for pre planned strikes and to attack high-value
targets. This missile and its supporting planning and targeting system
requires a lengthy planning time due to the need to develop detailed
mission plans. However, TLAM is being improved to provide a more
tactically responsive weapon for certain types of high-value,
time-critical targets.
Several candidates also are being evaluated to produce a fire support
missile in the first decade of the next century to supplement both
TLAM and the gun system. This weapon will provide surface combatants a
quick response, deep attack capability against high-priority
battlefield and interdiction targets.
The Army tactical missile system (ATACMS) was tested at sea in
February 1995, and a variant, the Naval tactical missile system
(TACMS) has been proposed. The production version of Navy TACMS would
be a modified Army TACMS Block IA with a range of about 150 NM
carrying a payload of 300 M74 submunitions. This missile would be
fired from the vertical launching system (VLS) Mark 41. A test of
TACMS from a vertical launcher is scheduled at White Sands Missile
Range, New Mexico, in late 1996.
[INLINE] Courtesy of Lockheed Martin Vaught Systems An artist's
rendition of a submarine-launched ATACMS.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
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A land-attack version of the Navy's standard missile 2 (SM-2) also has
been proposed for standard missile strikes. It would use the SM-2
rocket motor and control set with a new INS/GPS navigation and
guidance set and a submunition payload.
The sea-launched standoff land attack missile (Sea SLAM) is a proposed
surface ship-launched variant of the air launched SLAM missile. Sea
SLAM capabilities were successfully demonstrated in early 1996. Sea
SLAM has a range of about 75 NM; a control aircraft or a specially
modified helicopter uses the missile's electro-optical seeker to lock
on to the preplanned target.
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Naval Surface Fires and the Land Battle
Other more advanced weapons have been proposed for land attack. An
advanced gun system concept, the revolutionary vertical gun for
advanced ships (VGAS), features a vertically positioned pair of
155-mm/52-caliber barrels with automatic loaders. VGAS would fire
rocket-boosted guided projectiles to ranges well beyond the current
gunrange requirement. Projectiles fabricated from advanced composite
materials or powered by a supersonic ram jet (Scramshell) also could
attain ranges well beyond the 63 NM specified for the ERGM round.
Tomahawk stops the attacking regiments (TSTAR) is a concept by the
cruise missile program for a TLAM variant to attack massed, mobile
armored forces. The missile would be a variant of the TLAM missile
with brilliant anti-tank (BAT) munitions or wide area mine (WAM)
payloads.
Also, a notional fast-response missile has been included in concepts
to support the 21st Century Surface Combatant (SC-2 1). The notional
ballistic missile would attack time-critical targets beyond 150 NM.
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Fire Coordination Systems
Outstanding weapons won't be effective without the ability to
accurately designate targets and ensure fires are coordinated over an
extended and fast-paced battlefield. These capabilities call for
systems that can plan and coordinate fires and communicate digitally.
It's clear that NSFS must be a component of a fully integrated fires
system within the Marine Corps' OMFTS and Army's Force XXI. It must
communicate with all FSEs using joint message standards over
high-speed digital data paths and have interoperable mission planning
and fires coordination capabilities. Such a system must meet several
basic requirements. It must--
* Support NSFS weapons and other naval weaponry against assigned
targets: prearranged, general support (GS) and direct support
(DS). This requires precise target information to place ordnance
within lethal weapon radius for a variety of targets.
* Operate with both digital and voice communications used by joint
forces on the battlefield. Voice will be less important; but for
the near future, voice communications must be retained as a
parallel and backup capability.
* Ensure that surface combatants with NSFS capabilities are
interoperable with the force fire support coordination system.
Surface ships must have a relevant battlefield tactical picture
shared with all echelons of tactical command afloat and ashore and
must receive fire support coordinating measures (FSCM) to develop
tactical fire control solutions for all weapons. The problems of
the future battlefield include not only assigning resources, but
also deconflicting the fires of aircraft, helicopters, missiles
and gun-fired ordnance. Coordination must encompass joint fires
and air coordination elements.
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Naval Surface Fires and the Land Battle
New NSFS operational concepts and requirements are determining
candidate systems for a notional system of systems. Today, the
requirements to develop a new system must be tempered with concern for
development costs and retention of flexibility in the combat system of
the cruisers and destroyers. Reuse of joint systems, especially where
they enhance capabilities and interoperability, is a system design
goal.
Currently, fire support communications are via HF voice radio nets
with force coordination centers afloat and ashore and forward
observers (FOs). In expeditionary operations or in a land battle
involving Marine Corps or Army combat elements, digital communications
for fire support control and coordination is accomplished primarily
using the VHF radio combat net and SINCGARS. This has some significant
limitations where the fire units are over the visual horizon from the
combat radio net. Navy surface combatants must participate in the
digitization of the future battlefield. New communications solutions
may be required to provide a reliable communications interface with
cruisers and destroyers providing fires to support expeditionary
operations or the land battle.
Joint systems are now being developed in a common operating
environment (COE) with open system architecture standards, standard
hardware and modular software. Future surface combatants will have
fully integrated combat systems with a computing system backbone and
common display terminals to run mission-specific applications. Cruiser
and destroyer combat systems will include the functions required to
plan, coordinate and execute missions for tactically responsive land
attack missiles. Weapons coordination and a relevant, shared tactical
picture are key requirements in NSFS.
Several demonstrations have been conducted recently to explore
integrating naval fires with forces operating ashore.
Demonstrations completed in Combined Joint Task Force Exercise
(CJTFEX) 96 in April and May of 1996 off the coast of North Carolina
were ambitious attempts to showcase planning and coordination
capabilities at the force and NSFS ship level. The Navy received
generous support from the Marine Corps and the Army in conducting
these demonstrations.
These demonstrations included mission planning, airspace coordination,
GS and DS fire missions with the gun system and a notional engagement
with a simulated shipboard ATACMS. Army advanced Field Artillery
tactical data system (AFATDS) terminals were installed in the USS
Mount Whitney (LCC-21), USS Saipan (LHA-2), USS Nassau (LHA-4) and USS
Mitscher (DDG-57).
[INLINE] Courtesy of Naval Surface Warfare USS Saipan and USS Mount
Whitney used AFATDS to simulate airspace deconfliction for a notional
TACMS firing from the USS Mitscher
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Naval Surface Fires and the Land Battle
DS missions were conducted with an FO on shore using a digital
communications terminal (DCT) to pass fire support messages to the USS
Mitscher. A remote digital data link converted certain tactical fire
direction messages sent from AFATDS and the digital devices carried by
the FOs for display on the gunfire control console. This replaced the
current procedure where targeting data is passed by voice from an FO
and entered manually by the gun fire control system operator to
designate targets for the 5-inch gun. SINCGARS and a SHF satellite
communications link were used to exchange tactical data and coordinate
fire missions among the amphibious command ships and shore terminals.
Connectivity ashore included the fire support coordination center
(FSCC) for II Marine Expeditionary Force (II MEF) and the XVIII
Airborne Corps FSE at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
[INLINE]
Courtesy of Naval Surface Warfare The USS Mitscher provided direct
support to Marines ashore during JTFEX 96.
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The demonstrations showed conclusively that VHF SINCGARS is inadequate
to provide a reliable ship-to-shore digital net over the ranges and at
the digital data rates that will be common in future littoral
operations. A reliable and secure SHF satellite communications net for
NSFS was established among command ships and ground component forces
for the at-sea demonstration. However, this is not an operational
capability: we are not assured of having SHF channels available and,
in any case, cruisers and destroyers won't have a SHF communications
capability.
In another effort, the Cruise Missile Program (PMA-282) and the
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's (DARPA's) Information
Systems Office conducted interoperability demonstrations of the
advanced Tomahawk weapons control system (ATWCS), the Department of
Defense (DoD) global command and control system (GCCS) and other
systems. The objective was to share situational awareness data to plan
and execute timely fire support for ground forces via digital
calls-for-fire from Army FSEs as well as small units in the field.
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Naval Surface Fires and the Land Battle
In this demonstration, disparate systems from different services
interoperated seamlessly and shared common tactical data. This
demonstration and the CJTFEX exercise illustrated the need for DoD
systems to migrate to the COE as soon as possible to ensure joint
interoperability and integration.
Army and Marine Corps systems will continue to be evaluated for use as
building blocks with Navy-specific systems to develop a NSFS digital
mission planning and coordination system that is interoperable through
the COE. For example, AFATDS is being examined to determine if its
functions support naval surface fire support solutions. If AFATDS
meets the requirements, the software probably will be used in a
computer already on the surface combatant to avoid adding a console to
a crowded combat information center(CIC).
Naval fires in future operations will employ a variety of advanced
weapons and a unit-level mission planning and targeting system that
will be integrated with a modem force-level fire support coordination
system. The goal is for surface-launched weapons to provide close
support, interdiction, counterfire and deep fires for the joint land
battle. All ships will be closely integrated into the joint fire
support planning and coordination system. These NSFS developments will
ensure we're fully capable of supporting Marine Corps and Army
operations in the 21st century.
_________________________________________________________________
Kelly Blosser is in the Warfare Analysis Department of the Naval Surface
Warfare Center Dahlgren Division, Dahlgren, Virginia, and has 35 years of
experience in naval surface warfare. He is a Mechanical Engineer and the
Lead Analyst for a team evaluating naval surface fire support (NSFS) and
tactical land attack systems. The team studied mission planning,
coordination and targeting requirements for a variant of the Army tactical
missile system (ATACMS) and is determining requirements for the NSFS for
future ships. Mr. Blosser also is co-chairman of a team evaluating strike
and fire support options for the 21st Century Surface Combatant. He's a
graduate of the Naval War College, Newport, Rhode Island.
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