UASs, Small Kill Vehicles Eyed for MDA
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Amy Butler
The U.S. Missile Defense Agency is considering using fielded unmanned aerial system (UAS) sensors and developing a lighter kill vehicle. The overall goal is to intercept ballistic missiles early in flight.
In its Fiscal 2010 budget, the MDA displayed a renewed focus on early ascent-phase intercept--before a threat reaches apogee--over continued development of midcourse engagement capabilities. Nevertheless, big hurdles loom.
"We may track [a threat missile] for part of the flight and then lose it, track it again for another part of the flight, lose it, and then track it again under today's system," U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Patrick O'Reilly, the MDA director, said during an interview with Aviation Week. "What we want to do is . . . track it continuously."
Dust or clouds could obscure a satellite's ability to detect a ballistic missile launch; but once the missile penetrates the cover, spacecraft can spot the target. What is lacking now with the Defense Support Program satellites and Space-Based Infrared System payloads in orbit is the ability to track the threat with enough fidelity to generate a firing solution.
Improved up-front tracking could also offer more time to conduct a shoot-look-shoot operation in the event an interceptor does not destroy the target.
A U.S. Air Force MQ-9 Reaper UAS that was used in an Apr. 7 test to observe a threat missile launch provided "very promising" results in potentially providing early detection and tracking, O'Reilly says. The UAS viewed a flight trial of the Israeli Arrow 2, which intercepted an intermediate-range ballistic missile that emulated the Iranian Shahab-3, according to local reports.
This Reaper viewed the threat launch from a "standoff distance," says Col. Chris Coombs, commander of the U.S. Air Force's MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper program office at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio. The UAS tracked the target using its standard MTS-B electro-optical/infrared payload until the missile flew beyond the sensor's range, which is a classified distance. The MTS-B, made by Raytheon, was able to follow the target through the various velocities of its acceleration phase, says Coombs.
Made by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, the Reaper is used in Iraq and Afghanistan to surveil fixed sites or observe moving targets on the ground.
The tracking data during the Arrow 2 test was transmitted via satellite communications to the Pentagon's Distributed Common Ground System, which handles intelligence sent from U-2s, Global Hawks and Predator/Reapers. The information was not processed in real time for engagement purposes during the test, says Coombs. Analysts continue to sift through it.
"Based on working with MDA, what they are seeing is that with the plethora of UASs--both Reaper and Predator variants flying in different [areas of operation]--they will be able to provide an early detection" capability for missile defense, according to Coombs.
MDA and Air Force officials are ironing out the details of an operational concept. The UASs would likely continue to operate in their primary hunter/killer role of surveillance and ground target engagement. What remains to be addressed is how to cue a UAS to detach from its primary mission in the event of a launch and begin tracking a target.
"We are developing a system that takes any data, identifies that a launch has occurred, gets a track on that data, and then hands it off to the network," O'Reilly says. "The UASs are performing some other mission and they are told 'go look over here' and that gives us significant capability. It is promising. There is work to get done that gets into the details of how to make it operational."
The MTS-B provided "extremely sensitive and extremely accurate" data, leading O'Reilly to believe that very little modification would be required for the UAS or its payload.
This concept could be operational in the next two years, he says. More tests using UASs are expected.
This September's launch of two Northrop Grumman Space Tracking and Surveillance System satellites, which are designed to provide high-fidelity tracking from space, is also expected to enhance the ability to generate a firing solution more quickly.
In the meantime, MDA is exploring how to squeeze more velocity out of the Raytheon SM-3 interceptor. The combination of earlier tracking data and higher velocity interceptors could achieve the goal of destroying threats early in flight. A key piece of this strategy is to lighten the weight of the kill vehicles, thus demanding less thrust for launch.
Research conducted during the Multiple Kill Vehicle (MKV) program can be culled to produce a small, light, unitary kill vehicle that could be added to the SM-3 in a spiral development program, O'Reilly says. Candidates include the SM-3 Block I B now in development or the larger SM-3 Block IIA being designed with Japan. The kill vehicle could be fielded in the next several years, the general says.
The Pentagon terminated the MKV program in the Fiscal 2010 budget request, and Congress appears amenable to the idea. The competing contractors, Lockheed Martin and Raytheon, were pursuing vastly different designs, but both demanded significant miniaturization. The MDA is allowing the companies to finish existing tasks on their contracts. And O'Reilly says MKV proved that miniaturization technology is "viable."
During the Paris air show, Raytheon Missile Systems Vice President Taylor Lawrence said his company is considering pursuing pieces of its MKV work.
The early engagement concept will hopefully drive an adversary to resort to deploying countermeasures earlier during flight. "The earlier they launch their countermeasures, the more difficult it is to make them look realistic over time," says O'Reilly. "If the countermeasures don't deploy, then we are going to intercept the whole thing." O'Reilly likens this strategy to blitzing a quarterback in American football.
Early intercept is not a new idea, he notes. The Defense Science Board proposed these concepts in a 2002 report, which is classified.
But critics of this approach assert that early intercept should not be viewed as a "panacea" that justifies the elimination of MKV and the high-speed Kinetic-Energy Interceptor programs. "They are trying to get a boost-phase intercept on the cheap," says one former senior defense official. "They are counting everything on being able to blitz the quarterback in every play."
The total reduction to MDA's budget in the Fiscal 2010 request was about $1.2 billion, including the MKV and KEI cuts.
MQ-9 Reaper photo credit: U.S. Air Force
