Missile Defense Agency might have the Answer to Chinese Hypersonic Missiles
The always excellent “Warzone” on “The Drive”.
Remember, the hypersonic missiles get up to speed(Mach 5) and then release the glider, which is a “Hyper-Maneuvering” vehicle. The maneuvering is what makes them hard to hit. And almost certainly, the booster turns into chaffing and flares to confuse the tracking. There are also considerations concerning ammunition.
Will our ships have enough ammo to hit the decoy threats and real threats?
I was told we also developed some bad ass tech to boost the systems we already have. Which, reportedly don’t work.
But I was told they do. By some science guys who work for science R&D on science stuff.
Down by the river half past the hour.
The Article from The Drive.
The Missile Defense Agency, or MDA, has offered a glimpse into how it plans to spot, track, and intercept hypersonic boost-glide vehicles, or HGVs, in a new animated video presentation recently posted online. The animation lays out, step-by-step, its latest “multi-layered solution to defend against the next generation of hypersonic glide vehicles.” Most notably, this animation offers a new look into how it will integrate the Glide Phase Interceptor, or GPI, a still-in-development weapon aimed at defeating HGV threats in the glide phase of their trajectories, into this larger concept of operations.
The new video depicting this system, titled “MDA Concept for Regional Hypersonic Missile Defense: Technology to Defeat the Threat,” describes MDA’s plans “to protect the US, its deployed forces, and allies against regional hypersonic threats using a multi-layered solution to defend against the next generation of hypersonic glide vehicles,” according to the video’s description. The MDA’s current concept for a Regional Hypersonic Missile Defense system combines Aegis Combat System-equipped surface vessels with both space-based and ground-based sensor systems, and ties them together with various integrated fire control and sensor fusion networks. The aforementioned GPI, along with the increasingly capable Standard Missile 6 (SM-6), a multi-purpose weapon that already has the ability to engage certain ballistic missiles in the terminal stage of their flight, would then be used to prosecute the incoming HGVs.
The new video depicting this system, titled “MDA Concept for Regional Hypersonic Missile Defense: Technology to Defeat the Threat,” describes MDA’s plans “to protect the US, its deployed forces, and allies against regional hypersonic threats using a multi-layered solution to defend against the next generation of hypersonic glide vehicles,” according to the video’s description. The MDA’s current concept for a Regional Hypersonic Missile Defense system combines Aegis Combat System-equipped surface vessels with both space-based and ground-based sensor systems, and ties them together with various integrated fire control and sensor fusion networks. The aforementioned GPI, along with the increasingly capable Standard Missile 6 (SM-6), a multi-purpose weapon that already has the ability to engage certain ballistic missiles in the terminal stage of their flight, would then be used to prosecute the incoming HGVs.
MDA
A screengrab from the recently released Missile Defense Agency video presentation on its Regional Hypersonic Missile Defense concept.
Missile defense is a complicated proposition, to begin with, but attempting to intercept HGVs presents unique challenges. Hypersonic boost-glide vehicles are unpowered and typically use a rocket booster to get to a desired speed and altitude. The vehicle is then released from the rest of the weapon and comes gliding back down along an atmospheric trajectory toward its target at hypersonic speeds, defined as anything about Mach 5.
While not all HGVs are designed in exactly the same way, they are all, at their core, designed to be able to make sudden and unpredictable movements along their flight paths, especially when compared to the trajectories followed by traditional ballistic missiles, even those that feature maneuverable reentry vehicles. This maneuverability, combined with their high speed and general flight profile, makes it extremely hard to spot and track them, especially with sensors designed with more typical ballistic missiles in mind. This, in turn, shortens the available window a defender has to react in any way, whether it be an attempt to intercept the incoming vehicles, or simply trying to move critical assets out of harm’s way or otherwise seeking cover.
GAO
A very rudimentary graphic showing a notional HGV flight profile compared to that of a traditional ballistic missile. The flight path of a low-flying air-breathing hypersonic cruise missile is also shown for comparison.
In addition to a brief introduction to the components of the hypersonic defense concept, the MDA video starts by graphically showing the difficulties associated with detecting and tracking incoming HGVs, let alone trying to swat them down, with a scenario involving one of these weapons launched at an aircraft carrier. The HGV is shown flying under a cone representing the typical area that applicable radars on U.S. Navy Arleigh Burke class destroyers will search when operating in the ballistic missile defense role.
MDA
A screengrab from the recently released MDA video showing how an Aegis-equipped Arleigh Burke class destroyer operating in the ballistic missile defense role typically detects and tracks targets compared to the flight profile of a hypersonic boost-glide vehicle.
The video then continues to describe how the planned hypersonic defense concept would change a similar scenario involving the launch of four HGVs. MDA walks through each step of their proposed multi-layered defense concept in the video.
In the video, two space-based sensors from the Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor (HBTSS) constellation detect the launches and track the HGVs while they’re still attached to their boosters and flying along a more typical ballistic trajectory. Those sensors then continue to track the HGVs after they separate, providing a “fire control-quality track” for subsequent intercept attempts.
In 2019, MDA kicked off a competition to build these missile defense satellites when it awarded initial development contracts to four companies, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, Leidos, and L3Harris. In January, it picked Northrop Grumman and L3Harris to move onto the next phase. The goal in the past has been to have the first HBTSS satellite deployed in 2023. It’s not clear how many total satellites are now expected to form the HBTSS constellation, which is just one of the myriad planned space-based early warning and missile defense sensors that the U.S. military plans to put into orbit in the coming years.
In the video, two space-based sensors from the Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor (HBTSS) constellation detect the launches and track the HGVs while they’re still attached to their boosters and flying along a more typical ballistic trajectory. Those sensors then continue to track the HGVs after they separate, providing a “fire control-quality track” for subsequent intercept attempts.
In 2019, MDA kicked off a competition to build these missile defense satellites when it awarded initial development contracts to four companies, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, Leidos, and L3Harris. In January, it picked Northrop Grumman and L3Harris to move onto the next phase. The goal in the past has been to have the first HBTSS satellite deployed in 2023. It’s not clear how many total satellites are now expected to form the HBTSS constellation, which is just one of the myriad planned space-based early warning and missile defense sensors that the U.S. military plans to put into orbit in the coming years.
NORTHROP GRUMMAN
Concept art Northrop Grumman has released around its HBTSS proposal.
MDA says that the tracking and targeting information from the HBTSS sensors will feed information into the Ballistic Missile Defense Overhead Persistent Infrared Architecture (BOA), a sensor fusion architecture. That data, which is continuously updated in near-real-time, is then used to track the HGVs. The HBTSS tracking information is then forwarded to Aegis-equipped destroyers via BOA, as well as through MDA’s separate Command and Control, Battle Management, and Communications (C2BMC) network, using satellite communications.
Though not stated specifically in the video, C2BMC provides links to and from an array of other ground, sea, and space-based sensors beyond HBTSS. This includes Aegis-equipped warships, which can work together to relay tracking and targeting information between themselves while attempt to intercept incoming HGVs.
Though not stated specifically in the video, C2BMC provides links to and from an array of other ground, sea, and space-based sensors beyond HBTSS. This includes Aegis-equipped warships, which can work together to relay tracking and targeting information between themselves while attempt to intercept incoming HGVs.
USN
The Arleigh Burke class destroyer USS Hopper fires an SM-3 ballistic missile interceptor during a test.
With all this information in hand, one or more of those destroyers can then initiate so-called “Engage on Remote” (EoR) intercepts, which use only offboard tracking and targeting data, rather than its own radars to direct the interceptor to its target. They can also conduct what are called “Launch on Remote” intercepts, in which anti-hypersonic interceptors are launched based on targeting information from offboard sensor nodes, but the ship’s own radars provide targeting updates in the latter stages of the engagement.
HBTSS is also expected to be able to directly cue the radars on Aegis-equipped ships to point in the direction of an incoming threat that is outside of their scan range. This will help them be able to immediately pick it up when it does get within range, in what is called a “cued organic” intercept concept.
The planned Glide Phase Interceptor (GPI), an effort that supplanted the previous Regional Glide Phase Weapon System (RGPWS) project earlier this year, is expected to be the primary anti-hypersonic interceptor employed in all of these different engagement concepts. Details about the GPI’s required capabilities are still limited, but MDA has already issued solicitations for proposals from contractors to develop the weapon, which the video says will be capable of “overmatching the speed and agility of hypersonic threats.”
HBTSS is also expected to be able to directly cue the radars on Aegis-equipped ships to point in the direction of an incoming threat that is outside of their scan range. This will help them be able to immediately pick it up when it does get within range, in what is called a “cued organic” intercept concept.
The planned Glide Phase Interceptor (GPI), an effort that supplanted the previous Regional Glide Phase Weapon System (RGPWS) project earlier this year, is expected to be the primary anti-hypersonic interceptor employed in all of these different engagement concepts. Details about the GPI’s required capabilities are still limited, but MDA has already issued solicitations for proposals from contractors to develop the weapon, which the video says will be capable of “overmatching the speed and agility of hypersonic threats.”
MDA
A screengrab from the MDA video showing an artist’s conception of a notional GPI.
“The Glide Phase Interceptor (GPI) is leveraging information from RGPWS to accelerate the development of an operational system for hypersonic missile defense using the proven Aegis platform to provide regional hypersonic missile defense,” MDA also told Aviation Week earlier this year. It remains unclear how, if at all, GPI, and RGPWS before it, may or may not be related to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DAPRA) Glide Breaker hypersonic defense program.
MDA also sees the SM-6 missile as offering another option to engage incoming HGVs in the terminal stage of their flight. It first emerged in April that the Agency was eying SM-6 for use in the hypersonic defense role and that it plans to try to knock down a hypersonic boost-glide vehicle surrogate with one of these missiles sometime during the 2024 Fiscal Year, all of which you can read about more here. It is assumed that this plan revolves around the still-in-development enlarged SM-6 Block IB variant, which will be able to reach hypersonic speeds itself.
It is also worth noting that MDA is interested in expanding the missile defense capabilities of the SM-6 series, broadly. A test in May that involved a pair of ballistic missile defense-optimized SM-6s, known as SM-6 Dual IIs, fired at a surrogate for a medium-range ballistic missile, notably ended in failure.
MDA also sees the SM-6 missile as offering another option to engage incoming HGVs in the terminal stage of their flight. It first emerged in April that the Agency was eying SM-6 for use in the hypersonic defense role and that it plans to try to knock down a hypersonic boost-glide vehicle surrogate with one of these missiles sometime during the 2024 Fiscal Year, all of which you can read about more here. It is assumed that this plan revolves around the still-in-development enlarged SM-6 Block IB variant, which will be able to reach hypersonic speeds itself.
It is also worth noting that MDA is interested in expanding the missile defense capabilities of the SM-6 series, broadly. A test in May that involved a pair of ballistic missile defense-optimized SM-6s, known as SM-6 Dual IIs, fired at a surrogate for a medium-range ballistic missile, notably ended in failure.
USN
An SM-6 Block I/IA missile at the moment of launch.
In addition, while the MDA’s slickly-produced animation shows their vision for a multi-layered hypersonic missile defense system working like clockwork, as already noted, defending against the latest hypersonic glide vehicle technologies is a complex proposition, in reality, to say the least. It also relies heavily on components, especially a dense network of space-based sensors able to reliably spot and track these threats, that have yet to enter service. As already mentioned, the first of the HBTSS satellites is expected to head into orbit in 2023. The current plan is to begin fielding the GPIs sometime in the mid to late-2020s.
At the same time, Russia and China, potential American adversaries, have already begun fielding various types of hypersonic weapons and are in the process of developing more. MDA Director Navy Vice Admiral Jon Hill highlighted the threat that boost-glide vehicles and other hypersonic weapons pose to aircraft carriers, specifically, the same notional high-value target in the recent released video, during a Congressional hearing last week.
“It’s important that we have that capability [hypersonic defense] now because the hypersonic threat is there now,” he said. “What we want to do is move further back into that trajectory, engage earlier, make the terminal defense even better. And so, the glide phase interceptor is under acceleration in the [Fiscal Year 2022] budget.”
At the same time, Russia and China, potential American adversaries, have already begun fielding various types of hypersonic weapons and are in the process of developing more. MDA Director Navy Vice Admiral Jon Hill highlighted the threat that boost-glide vehicles and other hypersonic weapons pose to aircraft carriers, specifically, the same notional high-value target in the recent released video, during a Congressional hearing last week.
“It’s important that we have that capability [hypersonic defense] now because the hypersonic threat is there now,” he said. “What we want to do is move further back into that trajectory, engage earlier, make the terminal defense even better. And so, the glide phase interceptor is under acceleration in the [Fiscal Year 2022] budget.”
CHINESE INTERNET
Chinese transporter-erector-launchers with mockups of the DF-17 missile, which has a hypersonic boost-glide vehicle at its tip, on parade in 2019.
It is for these reasons that MDA is hard at work now on multi-layered defenses, such as the Regional Hypersonic Missile Defense concept. At the same time, defending carriers and other high-value targets from hypersonic threats will be very much riding on the successful development of new sensor and interceptor technology.
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About the Author: Johnny Paratrooper
Born and Raised in Baltimore City, Maryland. History Degree. 8 Years Airborne Infantry and Scouts Platoon. Iraq Veteran. 4-5 Years as a doorman, bar back, and bouncer in Baltimore. Worked in Construction, Heavy Equipment Demolition, Corporate Security, Sales, Forest Service contractor, and the Hospitality Industry. Raised Catholic. Hobbies are race cars and sport bikes. Side projects are HAM radio credentials and long range shooting. MY EMAIL IS [email protected].
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16 Comments
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GUNS N GEAR
I’m just a fella trying to interpret for understanding, by way of a couple questions. Am I correct in my knowledge, that that the US is well behind the curve in hypersonic and glide type weapons? That has been my impression. If we (USA) are to field an effective system in/by 2024, what will be the tech advances for CCP and USSR systems by then, seems they are advancing quite well with hypersonics (please forgive ’80s USSR btw, a habit) If the opponent can launch 40-80-etc weapons against a USN carrier, how many countermeasures can the carrier actually bring forth, and what percenatge of assumed effectiveness? Not a pro but an average Joe, to me it seems like a carrier is kinda like a tank these days, all good and well until the opposing force decides they want you spewing fire and they roll up with the appropriate missiles to make it happen. Hope I’m wrong, Lordy I do….
Delta Mike
Our government claims they are behind the curve for Hypersonic missile tech. I don’t know if they are bluffing or not.
That is/are great questions and deductions! Carriers are “sitting ducks” for all intents & purposes. The U.S. Navy, despite Biden’s efforts are working on enhancing the shipboard systems/weapons for a Carrier to defend itself, but more importantly new ships – some autonomous – with systems/weapons to act as Pickets in order to defend the Carriers. Sadly, these same companies are most likely the ones supplying the Chinese with their technology! To them it’s all about profit, Nation States are immaterial!!
Of course “our agency” and military industrial complex “may” have a way to defeat the Chinese Hypersonic Missiles – who do you think GAVE THEM the technology to begin with???
Kissinger’s friends and family. The BIRD, The BARD, and the BSF.
Exactly! Thank you for posting this! Great article! On a side note, I am trying to interpret/decipher the ousting of Beijing Bibi? I see it at a definite sign that maybe the Israeli people are tired of his Globalist/Corrupt Ass! Would love to know if Mossad/Unit 8200 approve?
Only time will tell. I haven’t researched the party that is taking power, nor have I seen any of their plans for Israel. We will certainly know more by the end of the summer.
So the US is behind but the enemies are stealing our yet to exist tech. Time travel I suppose.
Or it could be they are churning out engineers like biscuits and shaving time and R&D budgets with industrial espionage like everyone else.
Meanwhile we produce ‘educated’ fools who couldn’t build a chair.
Development comes in many forms. Like the manufacturing processes, targeting systems, or developing the materials and sciences capable of achieving the goals of hypersonic maneuvering. We have developed many types of weapons and technologies, but we don’t necessarily use them or produce them.
1,000,000 foreign students occupy our high tech, engineering, and applied sciences school programs.
It’s not my fault I was passed over for acceptance into these programs in favor of the foreign students who pay full price and are not white. Furthering the destruction of the U.S.. And it’s certainly not my fault I was brainwashed with propaganda instead of being taught something useful. Also, it certainly isn’t any other heritage American’s fault that our schools are occupied by hostile actors and traitors.
Understood. Not blaming, more like cold water.My ire is towards the institutions that were supposed to vet all these people. When I came here I had to produce my background and be interviewed by a serious as a heart attack Consular official. Full medical with chest X-ray(TB check). 1991 – not ancient history.
My daughter finished the first year of a 4 year engineering degree. 2 girls. 4 whites . 12 in the class out of 14 who started. 85% scholarship because they are desperate for students. Up till 11 studying. Not easy.
We fix this problem or we will / are becoming a giant Mexico. Plenty security work I guess.
Cold water is good for waking people up!
We are turning into Mexico.
Mexico is run by corporations who could care less about their own people, culture, heritage, or nation. Which is why they send them here. Same corporations, same BS, same people, same plan.
Also, I applied for scholarships and was completely denied on all fronts. Disappointing to say the least. I had a miserable experience at College. It was woke Twitter 24/7 run by Wolf Blitzer types.
Another thing to consider. 12% of Rare Earth Metal s- REE is mined in the US. None is refined here.
The DOD finally announced a subsidy for the REE sector – for $17,000,000. China backstops their REE sector with $ 20 billion. Make this known to politicians or .mil types who are not in a coma.
A rare earth minerals post would be great. Not just the mining and refining, but all the rare earth elements we have in our technology are technically in our control, but yet we still grind them up and ship them back to China. So even if we purchase REE, somehow China still ends up in control.
Reading stuff by Marin Katusa now . He is a big name in the Wild West of fringe mining investments .
The REE world makes the drug trade seem boring. ‘Permanent magnets’ are a big phrase they use. 920 pounds of the stuff in a F 35 for example.
The silver ‘market’ is equally FUBAR. More gold exists now than silver which really needs to be declared a strategic metal. Literally nothing modern works without it.
Huge opportunity for the US to leapfrog the others with all the mining/ refining/ marketing talent in this country.
I will finish this book and dump some stuff and links on you.
Yes. Very interesting. Are you familiar with the Pre-Nuclear testing magnets and the Post Nuclear testing magnets used in MRI’s? Blast furnaces amirite? Wild stuff.
No, definitely will look into it though.
Feel sorry and contempt for these dumbasses who say they are ‘bored’. Literally never in history was so much happening and so much information available.