BMD - Ballistic Missle Defense Ships

[Boats]

Navy Times reports


East Coast ship deploys with BMD capability

By Andrew Scutro - Staff writer
Posted : Thursday Sep 4, 2008 625 EDT

NORFOLK, Va. — The destroyer Ramage left the pier Friday with a big, new arrow in its quiver. Departing as part of the Iwo Jima Expeditionary Strike Group, the 14-year-old warship was the first Atlantic-based Arleigh Burke to deploy ready for ballistic missile defense.

“She is loaded,” said Rear Adm. Alan Hicks, program director for Aegis ballistic missile defense, in a teleconference with reporters. “She can search and track for cueing; she can do engagements of exoatmospheric threats; and she can defend herself against air threats. That is our definition of fully mission-capable.”

Standing on the forecastle of Ramage prior to deployment, Cmdr. Peter Galluch said his 260 crew members are up for the added mission set. They’ve been training for a year for the seven-month deployment and six months of that time — “a long, intense period” — for the BMD mission.

By upgrading its Aegis radar system and training the crews to intercept airborne ballistic missiles, the Navy has been bolstering the usefulness of its older Flight I/II Burke-class destroyers, as well as some of its Ticonderoga-class cruisers.

Galluch compared the upgrade to going from using a shotgun to a high-powered rifle with a really good scope: You are still shooting at a target.

“In a way it’s the same. You have to locate it, get a good track, report it to your superiors and decide if you’re going to shoot or not shoot,” he said.

One major difference from defending against an incoming threat at sea, for example, is that strong links are required between ships, satellites and shore stations, as the ballistic missile is most likely headed for a target ashore, such as a city.

“It’s very communications-dependent. A large part of getting set up was the communications,” he said. “And our deployment is going to be full of that.”

But the bulk of the BMD-capable ships are home-ported in the Pacific. The recently certified destroyer Stout is the only other Atlantic-based ship with the upgrade.

On top of the enhanced software to track and target airborne ballistic missiles, the big arrow is the Standard Missile-3, which can make an intercept in space, at 100 miles above sea level.

The seaborne BMD system has been successful in nine test intercepts over the Pacific, according to the Missile Defense Agency, although the land-based midcourse BMD system has been less accurate, missing five times in 12 tests.

“I think it’s just further evidence and validation of what we’ve already proven in the Pacific Fleet area of responsibility of getting capability out to the war fighter,” Hicks said.

The plan now is to boost the number of Atlantic-based ships with BMD teeth.

“I believe, near-term, that we need an additional four to six Atlantic Fleet ships in order to give the necessary flexibility to the fleet commander to keep the presence forward,” Hicks said.

Earlier in the summer, coincidentally at a time when war tensions between Iran and Israel were flaring, two Pacific-based BMD destroyers, the Benfold and the Russell, conducted a communications system test — not missile intercepts — in the Middle East.

The exercise was described as a test of the rapid exchange of information between the two fleets, via satellite, as well as information from ground-based sensors.

Benfold, in the Persian Gulf, and Russell, in the Mediterranean, worked “with one another in detecting, tracking, sharing information and engaging a simulated ballistic missile by sharing data via a number of paths,” according to information from 6th Fleet in Italy.

“We expect when Ramage arrives in theater, between commander, 6th Fleet, and commander, 5th Fleet, to continue that level of exercises across areas of responsibility to further refine operational procedures,” Hicks said.

Of course, for crew members, a new capability means another in the list of things to do.

“It binds you to a different training set that’s added to the crew’s current portfolio, just like strike or anti-submarine warfare,” he said. “It means they have to run training scenarios and maintain qualifications because you manage the weapon system differently: how you manage the radar, your engagement timelines, your engagement space.”

There are six BMD-capable ships home-ported in Pearl Harbor: the cruisers Port Royal and Lake Erie, and destroyers Russell, Paul Hamilton, O’Kane and Hopper.

Five are based out of Yokosuka, Japan: the cruiser Shiloh and destroyers John S. McCain, Stethem, Fitzgerald and Curtis Wilbur.

Home-ported in San Diego are the destroyers Decatur, Milius, Benfold, Higgins and John Paul Jones.