Surface Warfare

An illustrated report reflecting on of some of the new missiles displayed this week at the Airshow China in Zhuhai.

Finland has selected Israel's Advanced Naval Attack Missile to replace its current MTO85M system, a derivative of Swedish RBS15 that will reach the end of its life cycle in the 2020s. The new missile will be installed on existing Hamina-class missile boats and the new Squadron 2020 vessels, the first will be launched in 2019. According to the Finnish MOD, the missile will also be usable from vehicular platforms on land and against land targets.

The Royal Navy destroyer HMS Duncan (D37) and Spanish navy frigate ESPS Victoria (F82) completed a training mission in the East Mediterranean sea, as part of the Standing NATO Maritime Group 2 operating in the Eastern Mediterranean. By the end of May, after a short port visit at Haifa, the two warships joined with the Israeli navy on an exercise that involved the 'Protector' Unmanned Surface Vessel (USV) that demonstrated how such unmanned boats can assist large vessels in repelling attacks by swarms of fast boats.

Lockheed Martin successfully launched production-configuration Long Range Anti-Ship Missiles (LRASM) from a U.S. Air Force B-1B Lancer bomber. to be integrated onboard the U.S. Air Force's B-1B in 2018 and on the U.S. Navy's F/A-18E/F in 2019, LRASM will fulfill the US Navy's Offensive Anti-Surface Warfare (OASuW) Increment I requirement.

New capabilities introduced to the new batch of Block IV Tomahawk Land Attack Cruise Missiles (TLAM) are transforming the weapon of the 1980s into a smarter, more versatile 21st century weapon. The U.S. Navy is planning to rapidly deploy the modernized, retargetable Block IV land attack missile on board ships as a dual-mission 'Maritime Strike Tomahawk'.

The French ship builder DCNS presented today the [email protected] frigate design - a new 4,000 tonne frigate based on the French-Navy future Intermediate-Size Frigate (FTI) also developed by DCNS.

Elbit Systems introduce today the Skylark C - the first naval member of its electrically powered mini-UAV family. Based on the operational and combat-proven Skylark I-LEX Mini UAS, the naval variant extends the Skylark reconnaissance and surveillance capabilities to the maritime domain.

India tested today an air-launched version of the BrahMos supersonic attack missile on an Indian Air Force (IAF) Sukhoi Su-30 MKI aircraft. The missile was not launched on this test, as the flight was designed to test the weapon's aircraft integration.

The US Navy is gearing to take its futuristic Railgun out of the lab where it has been tested for to past eight years. In the next biennium, these mighty weapons will be tested in open firing ranges and eventually at sea, where the futuristic electromagnetic gun will be able to demonstrate its full capacity to fire projectiles at targets 50-100 nautical miles (92 - 185 kilometers) away.

Israel’s Navy conducted a successful test firing of a new surface-surface missiles launched from a Saar 5 corvette. The new missile is assumed to be part of an indigenous surface-to-surface missile system developed for the Israeli Navy by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI).

Elbit Systems today unveiled its latest unmanned system – the Seagull autonomous, modular, multi-mission Unmanned Surface Vessel (USV). The vessels are designed primarily for Anti-submarine warfare (ASW) and Mine-Countermeasures (MCM) operations.

In a recent test series performed by the US Navy, eight Army/Lockheed martin AGM-114L ‘Longbow Hellfire’ missiles destroyed seven fast naval craft simulating fast attack craft performing swarm attacks, similar to those practiced by the Iranian navy in the Arabian Sea and the Persian Gulf. The test was part of the engineering development test of the Surface-to-Surface Missile Module (SSMM), for use on littoral combat ships (LCS).

The U.S. Navy and Raytheon Company have completed the critical design review (CDR) of the AN/SPY-6(V) Air and Missile Defense Radar (AMDR). This radar will be installed on US Navy DDG-51 Flight III missile destroyers, improving their fighting and self-defense capabilities. The company said the Engineering and Manufacturing Development (EMD) phase of the program continues and is now more than 40 percent complete.

The US Navy has tested a ‘synthetically guided’ Tomahawk Block IV cruise missile last month, demonstrating the capability of existing Tomahawk missiles as netted weapons. “This capability extends the Tomahawk’s reach beyond fixed and re-locatable points, to moving targets.” Tomahawk Weapons System (PMA-280) program manager Capt. Joe Mauser explained.