Posted on 05/12/2016 11:30:35 AM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
The US Navy will wrap up developmental free flight testing of the datalink-equipped Boeing Harpoon Block II+ sea-skimming, anti-ship missile next week, ahead of fielding on the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet sometime between June and August of 2017.
The latest variant of the 45-year-old Harpoon weapon type expands on the satellite-aided navigation system introduced in Block II by adding a datalink radio ported across from the C-1 variant of Raytheon's AGM-154 Joint Standoff Weapon (JSOW) for in-flight retargeting against enemy surface vessels in cluttered coastal regions.
The Harpoon missile successfully struck its first ship target during a test in December 1971, less than two years after McDonnell Douglas Astronautics of St Charles, Missouri received a contract from the Pentagon to develop the low-flying, radar-homing cruise missile.
Since its introduction in 1977, the Harpoon has been integrated with submarines, ships and dozens of aircraft and remains in active service with 30 nations.
Speaking to the media on 11 May ahead of the Navy League Sea-Air-Space exposition in Washington DC next week, NAVAIR’s programme manager for precision strike weapons Capt Jaime Engdahl said Block II+ is being fielded first on the Super Hornet and is due for integration with the Boeing P-8A armed submarine hunter as part of the third capability insertion, which will be rolled out in the fiscal year 2021 timeframe.
“It’s still very relevant with an active radar-homing seeker,” says Engdahl. “Very relevant, very capable – even today. It’s all-weather. We don’t see any other weapons right now in the Free World that are all-weather with an active radar seeker.
“The sea skimming profile is something that gives it good survivability, good lethality, and we’ve done continuous upgrades of this capability ever since it was fielded.”
The US Navy began flight testing Harpoon Block II+ at the Point Mugu sea range in California in November 2015
US Navy
The upgrade to Block II+ comes as US Naval Air Systems Command expresses interest in an extended-range variant that uses a lighter but “more lethal” warhead and improved turbojet engine to approximately double the Harpoon’s unclassified range of 67nm (124km) to 134nm. The navy officially "rolled out" the ER concept at a Harpoon customer conference in April, and it has many of the same features inherent in the "next-generation" version Boeing proposed last year.
The extended range variant is Boeing’s answer to the 107nm (200km)-range Kongsberg-Raytheon Naval Strike Missile (NSM) that is being pursued by US Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) for integration and testing on American frigates and littoral combat ships as part of an offensive anti-surface warfare requirement. The NSM missile is being developed in tandem with the Joint Strike Missile (JSM) for the Lockheed F-35 Lightening II, which is due for integration as part of Block 4 in the 2020s.
The Norwegian missile was demonstrated on the USS Coronado (LCS-4), an Independence-class littoral combat ship (LCS), in September 2014 and this month NAVSEA issued a contracting notice that it intends to fund another “foreign comparative demonstration test” in late 2018.
Last year, Boeing was touting its "Harpoon Next Generation" missile for strikes on ships and land targets but is now pushing an "ER" variant with many of the same features
Boeing
Boeing is preparing to flight test its legacy Harpoon Block 1C from the USS Coronado, but will offer the “Harpoon Block II+ ER” for the navy’s over-the-horizon anti-ship missile competition for LCS.
“It doubles the range of the current Harpoon within the existing form factor,” Boeing’s director for cruise missile systems Jim Brooks said during the briefing on 11 May. “We’re able to do that at half the cost of what it would take to go out and acquire a new weapon system.
“This is what we believe would be the most capable and lowest cost option for the US Navy for LCS and Frigate.”
Wouldn’t this be just as vulnerable to point defenses as any older Harpoon?
I don’t see how this competes with the very high speed sea skimming missiles all our potential adversaries are building and buying.
I was in some early meetings at Kongsberg when this missile was still being initially planned out and the NSM stood for "New Surface Missile". Raytheon wasn't, to my knowledge, involved at that point.
What I remember more than anything is that Kongsberg HQ is at the bottom of a large hill and when it was time to leave the Norwegian Navy decided to take public transport home and the last bus was coming so they said "Quick! We must run! We'll barely make it!" and we ran from the bottom of that hill to the top and then a quarter mile (give or take) to the bus stop.
Once we got there, out of breath and sweating, I learned two things. First, it wasn't the last bus, there's one every 15 minutes or so. And second, Norwegian naval officers can be real dicks! :-)
FWIW, Kongsberg used to be the name of a standard whaling harpoon gun.
There have been radar-homing missiles since at least the Viet Nam war. The North Vietnamese stopping cooperating in their own destruction by not leaving the radar on long enough to be hit. The key to winning the next war won’t be high tech so much as removing the shackles (Rules of Engagement) from our military so they can make best use of the technical superiority we already employ. Fighting, IOW, to win.
That post hit the 10 ring! Well said!
“Joint Strike Missile (JSM) for the Lockheed F-35 Lightening II”
Just to be a picky jerk, it’s worth pointing out that the F-35 is designated the Lightning II. Like lightning from the sky. Not part of a “lightening” campaign.
Thanks. I’ll be here all week.
Not gonna happen.
Too many lawyers in the Pentagon.
And the Geneva Conventions seem to outlaw a Western State from fighting with its full power to win a conflict (Eastern States don’t seem to care...).
The guy added a word too many for clarity. What he should have said was just "active radar-homing" for the Harpoon, which means it pings the target with a small radar of its own. "Active radar seeking", like your Vietnam example is used by the HARM missile that homes in on enemy radar emissions.
Harpoon has a radar transceiver, while HARM has a receiver.
Right. Those are usually referred to as anti-radiation missiles.
"Harpoon has a radar transceiver, while HARM has a receiver."
The Harpoon certainly seems outmoded compared to the Russian Sunburn type missiles:
It reaches a speed of Mach 3 at high altitude and Mach 2.2 at low-altitude. This speed is triple the speed of the subsonic American Harpoon. When slower missiles, like the Harpoon or the French Exocet are used, the maximum theoretical response time for the defending ship is 120 to 150 seconds. This long response time provides time to launch countermeasures and employ jamming before deploying "hard" defense systems such as missiles and close-in weapon systems. But the high speed of the 3M82 "Mosquito" missiles reduce the maximum theoretical response time for the defending ship to 25 to 30 seconds. This short response time makes jamming and countermeasures very difficult, and firing missiles and quick-firing artillery even more difficult.The other kicker is the Sunburn can carry both nuclear and conventional warheads, while the Harpoon is conventional only. It also already has greater range than the upgraded Harpoon will.
The Sunburn and the Yakhont are terrifying. Using mobile launchers, they could do devastating damage in confined spaces like the Persian Gulf.
Fundamentally, in a serious war, our CVBGs have no business whatsoever in confined waters like the Persian Gulf.
Also a silver mining town east of ebbets pass :-)
Imagine a ship getting hit with multiple missiles.
They will explode like the battleship Hood.
Our procurement system and political system are so broken we’re going to lose our tech edge, which is about all that is keeping us head-and-shoulders above the rest.
“Our procurement system and political system are so broken we’re going to lose our tech edge, which is about all that is keeping us head-and-shoulders above the rest.”
Let’s hope Trump can start to turn things around!
The other thing I forgot to add to the Sunburn summary is that, unlike the Harpoon, it actively jinks during the terminal phase to avoid countermeasures...
heh, a real-life example of roboteching. But not good to hear that the Sunburn is surpassing our Harpoon in multiple ways.
The Yakhont and Sunburn have been around for years. I hope that was long enough for effective countermeasures to have been developed. The only thing I can think of might be the Phalanx gun, which could shatter the missiles on their way it. Of course, you’d still have pieces come in at supersonic speeds...
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