Navy Lacks Plan to Defend Against `Sizzler' Missile (Update1)

Bloomberg | March 23, 2007 | Tony Capaccio

[Cicero]

Bloomberg does not allow posts. Anyone interested in this important article should go to the source and have a look:

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601070&sid=a5LkaU0wj714&refer=home

[FreeAtlanta]

Would laser systems that are being developed for Israel work to defeat these? At the speed of light, evasive techniques would be useless.

[Cicero]

Laser occurred to me as well.

High powered lasers are degraded by atmosphere, but it would be a possibility, I should think.

[Ole Okie]

Guess it doesn't make any difference.

As long as the Democrats control the Congers, our best offense is going to be to run away as fast as we can.

[ThunderStruck94]

Mach 3 warhead being maneuverable

Trust me, it is true. The ss-n-22 corkscrews after it switches into terminal phase (supersonic). Once the SOB starts to corkscrew....it is all over even for AEGIS....I cannot get into the limitations of our defense systems because of security classification, but there is a certain trick that must be performed in order to defeat this missile. I suspect the sizzler to have a similar terminal phase.

[doorgunner69]

Trust me, it is true. The ss-n-22 corkscrews after it switches into terminal phase

Listen to the man, he knows his stuff. I woulda left out the "corkscrew" and just said maneuvering.............

[Old Student]

"Something doesn't add up here. Terminal phase (within 10nm) accelerates to mach 3 and is able to do defensive moves.....not at mach 3!"

Considering what a little bit of drag on one side or another can do, I wouldn't bet on that if I were you.

[neutronsgalore]

"Laser occurred to me as well.

High powered lasers are degraded by atmosphere, but it would be a possibility, I should think."

For a laser, the ideal I figure would be to lock on and kill the missile within 2 seconds. It would be able to attack a sea-skimmer at the horizon relative to the height of the laser. I wonder how powerful a laser it would require to kill an ASCM in 1-2 seconds? What would be the size of the laser, and would a carrier's power plant (assuming both reactors being brought on line) be sufficient?

[Cicero]

I know that they were working on high powered lasers some years ago (during Reagan's presidency) to use against satellites or ICBMs in outer space, but I don't know how far they may have developed them.

Lasers can be used over large distances in space, but are degraded by atmosphere. However, I would imagine it might be possible to use them over smaller distances of a few miles.

Again, I don't know for sure, but I would speculate that a laser needs to be fired up, and that would take a certain amount of time. Basically, a laser works by putting energy into a compartment where a coherent light beam bounces back and forth between the two ends of a cylinder until it gains enough energy to be released.

For a quick reaction, it might be necessary to keep the damned thing fired up all the time, just below the required energy level, but again this is pure speculation. If that were the case, probably you'd need some extra lasers, so some would always be ready to fire while others were brought down for maintenance. I THINK it would be possible, but I have no first hand information on it. This is all sheer speculation.

[FreeAtlanta]

When you said that about power, I grinned and thought, with it's nuclear reactors, what better source of power? I know these lasers use a chemical reactions to do their work, but surely, the power from the Reagan's reactors could help.

I wonder if any of the ABL's older and larger test lasers could be emergency fitted?

[InsNerd]

Thats funny you say that, I would tow mothballed WWII craft along-side the carriers, fill them with sand, and then sail right up the straights... crude but effective. Hell a commandered oil tanker filled with sea water might do the trick.

[FreeAtlanta]

How about rail guns?

A gun that accelerates a bullet to a speed of 13,000 miles per hour in 0.2 seconds? Seems like a science fiction dream, but don't even blink -- with advances in rail gun technology, a new era of high-speed military weaponry is coming right at us, faster than a speeding bullet.

[neutronsgalore]

"How about rail guns?"

Rail guns could be another possibility, depending on the size, effectiveness, and power consumption of the rail gun compared to a laser.

[finnman69]

The Iranians dont have the capability to fire 50 of these things at once.

Not to mention, these are not carrier killers. A 400kg warhead is big, but it's not like the big AS-6 air to ground missiles that carry 1000KG or 350kt nuclear warheads. In reality you need a nuke to sink a Nimitz class carrier.

[finnman69]

now this is a carrier killer, AS-6

SS-N-27 'Sizzler'

[finnman69]

The 200kg warhead missile zig zags on terminal approach. The 400kg warhead version does not.


http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/NAVY/Klub.html

The 3M-54E three-stage anti-ship missile consists of a booster, a subsonic cruise low-flying sustainer stage and a low-flying supersonic terminal stage. For surface vessels of smaller displacement or with shortened torpedo launchers, the system uses the 3M-54E1 anti-ship missile, which has a booster and a subsonic cruise sustainer stage, but carries a heavier warhead than the 3M-54E missile. After launch from either a vertical or angled deck-mounted launcher or from a submarine torpedo tube, the 3M-54E and 3M-54E1 follow similar trajectories. At an altitude of up to 150 metres, the solid-propellant booster is jettisoned, the under-fuselage air intake is extended, and the air-breathing sustainer engine is started. At the same time the wings and tail surfaces are extended, and the weapon descends to its cruising altitude of 10 to 15 metres above sea level. At a distance of up to 30 to 40 km from the target, the missile climbs to higher altitude and activates its ARGS-54 active homing radar seeker.

Developed by the Radar-MMS company of St. Petersburg, the ARGS-54 seeker has a maximum operational range of 60 km. As the missile continues towards the target at subsonic speed, the seeker scans from +45º to -45º in azimuth, and from and +10º to -20º in elevation. The ARGS-54 is 70 cm long, 42 cm in diameter, and weighs 40 kg without the radome. It can operate in precipitation conditions of up to 4mm/sec and in heavy sea conditions of up to sea state 6. After the target is detected and the seeker has locked on, the 3M-54E1 flies on at high subsonic speed to destroy the target. The 3M-54E, on the other hand, reaches its target in a different manner. At 20 km from the target, the 3M-54E's supersonic solid rocket-powered third-stage terminal 'dart' separates from the missile, descends to 3 to 5 metres above sea level and accelerates to a supersonic speed of Mach 2.9 in a zigzagging terminal run to hit its target.

The 3M-14E LACM has been designed to destroy ground-based targets and consists of a booster stage and a subsonic low-flying sustainer stage. The onboard control system includes a barometric altimeter used to maintain altitude in terrain-following mode (making the weapon stealthier than designs which rely on radar altimeters), plus a receiver for the Glonass satellite navigation system. The 3M-14E can be launched from either a submarine or a surface vessel. For most of the flight to the target area, the 3M-14E flies autonomously, following the pre-programmed route and turning points. Once over land, it uses a terrain-following flight path that will make it a difficult target for enemy air defences. This low-level flight mode poses a higher load on the wings and missile structure than flight over the sea surface, so the land-attack missile has slightly redesigned wings of shorter span and deeper chord, plus a stronger structure. A jam-resistant radar seeker is used for the final attack phase

[neutronsgalore]

"In reality you need a nuke to sink a Nimitz class carrier."

To sink it...yes. To put it out of action...no. All you have to do is inflict enough damage that it can no longer sustain combat ops.