When North Korea threatened to launch ballistic missiles in June, the American, South Korean, and Japanese navies responded by deploying warships. Each of the five destroyers was equipped with a missile-spotting Aegis radar system. The U.S. and Japanese vessels had Standard interceptors capable of shooting down missiles. Together, the ships comprised the first line of defense against a potential Nork launch.
And for good reason. The SM-3 version of the Standard has the best test record of any U.S. missile defense, achieving hits in 18 of the last 22 practice intercepts. Marine Corps Gen. James Cartwright, the Joint Chiefs vice chair, in April said the Aegis-SM-3 combo was one of only two major missile-defense systems that was production-ready (the other being the Army's Terminal High-Altitude Air Defense system). "We need those assets," Cartwright said.
Ships steaming on missile-defense missions might become a more common sight, if one former missile-defense analyst has his way. In the July issue of the Naval Institute's *Proceedings *magazine, retired Navy Lt. Cmdr. Bart Denny advocates shifting the bulk of the Pentagon's $10-billion-a-year missile-defense investment to Navy systems, especially the SM-3 and its smaller SM-2 cousin. "Sea-based systems could potentially replace land-based systems currently in development," writes Denny, who was a Central Command missile defense planner prior to retiring last year.
Currently, the Missile Defense Agency maintains a diverse portfolio of missile killers targeting the three phases of a missile's flight -- launch, mid-course, and terminal. The Pentagon could potentially pare down its ballistic missile defense arsenal from the six different interceptors in service or development to just the Standard. The result would be "more ballistic-missile defense capabilities in a shorter time, with a potential for significant cost savings," Denny writes.
Today's SM-3 is optimized for killing slow missiles in the middle of their flights (mid-course), while the SM-2 is considered a last-ditch defense against missiles at the ends of the flights (terminal). The Missile Defense Agency also wants to be able to kill missiles immediately after launch (boost phase). Plus, they're looking for better defenses in the mid-course and terminal phases, too. To turn the Standard into a jack-of-all-trades missile-killer, it will need upgrades, Denny explains. For point defense, the Navy already plans to replace the SM-2 with the more accurate SM-6. But improving the Standard missile for the other two phases is a bit more complex.
To kill bigger, faster ballistic missiles in the mid-course, the Navy is developing a "Block II" version of the SM-3, with a more powerful motor. Denny advocates adding a version of the recently-canceled "Multiple Kill Vehicle" -- a sort of cluster warhead -- to this Block II, to make sure it can take out missiles carrying multiple warheads. With these upgrades, the SM-3 could theoretically replace the controversial Ground-Based Interceptors installed in Alaska and California.
For boost-phase intercepts, the SM-3 would need a speed and range upgrade. Denny proposes mining the Advanced Technology Kill Vehicle, a boost-phase system from the 1980s, for new SM-3 components. A boost-phase-capable SM-3 could replace the struggling Airborne Laser-- and the enormous Kinetic Energy Interceptor that's still mostly a paper missile.
In addition to these technological tweaks, Denny calls on the Navy to add SM-3s -- and eventually SM-6s -- to all 84 of its destroyers and cruisers, rather than the 18 currently planned. In a pinch, he adds, the SM-3 could also be boxed and paired with a radar installion, for land-based use.
Would this all-SM-3 missile defense shield work? Who knows. But considering how poorly some of the current missile defenses have fared in tests -- I'm looking at you, Airborne Laser -- it might not hurt to try something new, with the military's most proven missile-killer as the starting point.
*[PHOTO: Navy]
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