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SM-3 seeker: target
A lot has been written in recent years about the improvements in air-air missiles. Short-range air-air missiles (SRAAMs) have received particular attention due to their vastly improved wide-angle seekers, computer processor improvements driven by Moore's Law, and g-tolerant maneuverability several times that of manned fighter aircraft. Some analysts now believe that close-in aerial combat may at last be threatening to fulfill missile engineers' old claims of "see, fire, and kill" – a development that would make cheap aircraft with new missiles a very significant threat, if true. Medium range AAM (MRAAM) designs have also made significant strides in performance.
How big are these strides? Normally, hitting a missile either in the atmosphere or in the lower echelons of space requires large mid-course interceptor rockets, theater defense missiles like IAI/Boeing's
Arrow 2 or the
USA's THAAD, or the
naval SM-3. But what if all the energy required to get off the ground and moving at speed was already taken care of, line of sight expanded by being at altitude, and the defensive missile could be moved very close to the launcher? If that was true, could you take a shorter-range MRAAM, add enhancements to it and a complementary infared seeker from a SRAAM, and use it as a first line of defense to counter, say, a ballistic missile during its early launch phase?
Raytheon – and the US Missile Defense Agency – think the answer may be "yes." Hence the program called
NCADE, the Network Centric Airborne Defense Element… and its potential may be even greater than its sponsors have considered. Now, it also has a successful test under its belt.
The NCADE Proto-Program, and How It Works
NCADE is an AIM-120 Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM) that adds the infrared seeker from Raytheon's AIM-9X air-to-air missile, and also adds a second-stage rocket motor from Aerojet [GY]. The rocket motor will use an advanced hydroxylammonium nitrate monopropellant thruster; its improved performance and high-density packaging should allow lighter, higher-velocity missiles. Hydroxylammonium nitrate is also less toxic and easier to handle than other propellants, and could eventually enable safe shipboard operation. Despite the addition of the second-stage propulsion, the NCADE missile is still the same size as an AMRAAM.
The goal is to fire
NCADE from aerial platforms like fighters, UAVs, or even high altitude airships or aerostats, in order to hit ballistic missiles during their ascent while they are still boosting or immediately thereafter. In an April 2006 briefing, Raytheon vice president of Advanced Missile Defense and Directed Energy Weapons Michael Booen said that:
"What you do is you fly the AMRAAM essentially straight up and you drop the spent first-stage rocket motor… You acquire the boosting target or the ascent-stage target, either one of which has got a big-enough infrared signature in order to be able to see, and then you attack the target… before it separates and deploys countermeasures."
Raytheon and Aerojet are currently focused on maturing the second-stage propulsion rocketry and optimizing the AIM-9X seeker for the new role.
NCADE: Implications and Scenarios
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Flashback: AS-135 ASAT
(Some of us remember a satellite killer missile concept from the 1980s that was designed to mount on an F-15; it used a very similar design approach to go after even higher-flying orbiting satellites with a larger missile, and succeeded in a 1985 test. While the comparatively small AMRAAM missile is inadequate for an anti-satellite role, the general engagement concept has been demonstrated. An F-15 would also be the designated initial test platform for NCADE, if the US Missile Defense Agency decides to continue to fund the concept program through to maturity.
True to its name,
NCADE is most valuable when the missile and/or its launching platform can receive targeting data from a wide variety of sources: Naval vessels with
Cooperative Engagement Capability. Large X-band ABM radars. Land-based air & missile defense systems. Aerial platforms like E-8 JSTARs aircraft or NATO's forthcoming AGS.
JLENS aerostats, or powered
HAA airships with ISIS radars. Etc.
If the missile concept works, an AMRRAM +
NCADE equipped aircraft plugged into this network could be deployed in theater or within the United States, becoming a useful defensive player against
either incoming cruise missiles or ballistic missiles.
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Hezbollah/Iran's rockets
Scenarios for which NCADE is being considered includes the threat of "missiles from a barge off the coast"[1], protecting an ally like Japan from North Korean attack via fighters deployed near or in North Korean airspace, helping to address the threat of short-range missile attacks like Desert Storm (1991), or even attacks by large rockets as featured in the recent war where Israel faced Hezbollah, Iran, and Syria.
Or,
NCADE could have far more prosaic uses on tomorrow's battlefields.
As DID's AMRAAM FOCUS Article notes, Russian (AA-10) and French (
MBDA's MICA) missile manufacturers are already pairing medium-range, datalinked missiles with high-performance infared seekers as an option instead of conventional radar seekers. This allows for passive infared targeting using long-range IRST sensors that give off no tell-tale electro-magnetic emissions, and do not trigger their targets' radar warning receivers as the launched missile homes in.
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B-2 up close, in IR
Even "stealth" aircraft can be tracked this way – the F-35 Lightning II, for instance, has limited infared stealth owing to an 40,000 pound thrust, single-engine design that lacks the shielding/dispersal measures of the B-2 Spirit stealth bomber et. al. Speaking of which, see the above graphic of a B-2 Spirit stealth bomber at relatively close range, lifted from EADS Eurofighter's presentation to the Norwegian government as they touted their own aircraft's advanced IRST cueing sensor.
An AMRAAM with highly advanced infared tracking, exceptional speed, and possibly longer range would have a number of potential roles. It would be an excellent "AWACS killer" weapon, for instance, that might begin to parry or even counter Russian developments in this area. It could also be employed against stealthy cruise missiles by homing in on their jet engine exhaust, with cueing from advanced infared scanners mounted on high-altitude aerostats or airships. Finally, it could simply become an unpredictable factor in the US aerial arsenal, extending the combat lifespan and functionality of US "teen series" fighters in particular by offering them a medium range, non-emitting weapon option that could be used in conjunction with upgraded sensor fits or improved targeting pods.
NCADE: Contracts & Key Events
Dec 3/07: During a test at White Sands Missile Range, an Air National Guard F-16 test aircraft from the ANG-Air Force Reserve Command Test Center in Tucson, AZ launches an AIM-9X airframe with the NCADE seeker at a boosting Orion sounding rocket. The official test objective was to demonstrate successful imaging at close range, but the missile went on to destroy the target. A second AIM-9X launched from White Sands Missile Range observed the intercept through its seeker; the US Missile Defense Agency says that it was also on a trajectory to intercept the Orion rocket.
Future testing will involve the missile's divert and attitude control (DACS) system, intended to give it the maneuverability it requires against such fast-moving targets. MDA release [PDF] | Raytheon release.
Oct 12/07: Jane's International Defence Review reports that a September test was supposed to mark the first carriage and launch trials of the new NCADE boost and ascent-phase missile-defence system. But Mike Booen, vice-president of Raytheon's Directed Energy Weapons business, told Jane's the trial window closed when the host aircraft's radar lost lock on target at a critical stage.
May 14/07: Raytheon Company announces a successful demonstration of NCADE's advanced hydroxylammonium nitrate thruster.
It also says that it has fabricated 2 prototype
NCADE seekers that have undergone characterization testing in a high-fidelity simulator, in order to check their ability to track a booster in the presence of a bright rocket plume.
Raytheon release.
April 28/06: Raytheon Company announces a $7 million contract from the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) for a risk reduction demonstration associated with the evolving Network Centric Airborne Defense Element (
NCADE) program. The 12-month Raytheon effort will focus on propulsion systems and seeker enhancements as part of the overall
NCADE system capability.
Work on this contract will be performed at Raytheon's Missile Systems business in Tucson, Ariz. Aerojet will perform propulsion work at its Redmond, WA location.
Raytheon release.
Footnotes
1 Though cruise missiles may be a higher probability threat in that scenario, ballistic missiles cannot be discounted as a possibility. Iran, for example, has recently tested ballistic missile launches from ships.
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05-12-2007, 23:05
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