Fast Boat Threat Faces Hail of Hellfires

AVIATION NOW ^ | 6/26/2009 | Graham Warwick

[sukhoi-30mki]

Fast Boat Threat Faces Hail of Hellfires Posted by Graham Warwick at 6/26/2009 2:48 PM CDT

Faced with the threat from swarms of small boats. the US Navy is looking to equip the sensor turrets of its shipborne helicopters with the ability to designate multiple targets for simultaneous attack by laser-guided missiles like Hellfire.

Photo: US Navy

A new Office of Naval Research project, called Multi-Target Track and Terminate (MT3), aims to demonstrate a prototype multi-target laser designator on an MH-60 - including at least six simultaneous launches against maritime targets in realistic conditions - within 60 months of contract award. It's not as easy a task as it sounds.

According to ONR the inshore threat to Navy ships ranges from tens of RPG-armed raiders on jet skis to a handful of fast attack boats carrying short-range cruise missiles. A helicopter launched to defend the ship - whether a manned MH-60 or AH-1 or unmanned Fire Scout - must be able to spot the threat among other boats in the area, pick the most threatening, and rapidly engage them. The Navy does not want a repeat of the 2000 suicide attack on the USS Cole in Aden.

Photo: US Navy via Wikipedia

The way ONR sees it working, a wide field-of-regard MTI radar or mid-wave IR would cue the narrow field-of-view EO/IR sensor for tracking, identification and prioritization of each target. Six or more boats would then be designated, each with a different pulse code, the laser revisiting each up to 20 times a second to illuminate them for incoming semi-active laser-guided weapons.

There's not much information available on multi-target laser designators. Physical Optics has been working with Navy funding on a ship-mounted system using holographic telescopic optics to provide beam steering. And Boulder Nonlinear Systems is developing a multi-spot laser beam steering system using a liquid-crystal spatial light modulator. But do I know what any of that means? Of course not.

[skinkinthegrass]

thanks, for the information.

[TheClintons-STILLAnti-American]

"Faced with the threat from swarms of small boats. the US Navy is looking to equip the sensor turrets of its shipborne helicopters with the ability to designate multiple targets for simultaneous attack by laser-guided missiles like Hellfire."

Don't be surprised if Obortion says it costs too much,

The money would be better spent on ACORN fixing elections.

[NoLibZone]

Does the Navy have enough carbon offsets to do this?

[ASOC]

Gee, I would have thought they’d be talking with the Army guys, who seems to have all of the figured out and been using it for a while - Apache ring a bell?

Another beltway bandit looking for swag....??

[Rockingham]

The US Navy correctly fears that in littoral waters like the Persian Gulf, adversaries could launch swarming attacks with small, fast, agile craft that would overwhelm the defenses of one or more of our ships. Unfortunately, the threat is already at hand while our best counters against it are still in the planning and development stage.

[skinkinthegrass]

Does the Navy have enough carbon offsets to do this?

0Bambi: We have a NAVY? ...SINK it Now!

[az_gila]

Just add a few more of these to our ships to cover multiple targets now they have been modified to engage surface targets...

Since they are basically self-contained, just bolt-n-go...:^)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phalanx_CIWS

[Rockingham]

Unfortunately, Phalanx is a terminal defense. The Navy also wants to be able to sink swarms of small craft at standoff distances before they can launch missiles.

[FreePaul]

...must be able to spot the threat among other boats in the area, pick the most threatening, and rapidly engage them.

Or just destroy all of the boats in the area. They wouldn't be there if they weren't interfering with our operations.

[tlb]

Just a reminder, in the runup to the second Iraq War there was a Pentagon wargame where the Marine general substituting for Saddam attacked with a flotilla of small fast attack craft and sank the USN invasion force. The referee reset the scenario to continue with an intact fleet and the Marine lost the war, with public ungracious comments about the fairness of the referee.

If they are just NOW addressing the weakness this wargame exposed, someone has been asleep at the switch.

[pa_dweller]

ping

[magslinger]

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[pabianice]

This is a natural for the P-3. Unfortunately, Obama has stolen the P-3 maintenance and P-8 development money for more welfare payments amd pay-offs to his constituents. US Navy patrol aviation is over after a great 90 year run.

[Pentagon Leatherneck]

The magic here is using one laser system to designate multiple targets at different azimuths and elevations from the designator helo. Sort of a “time-share” of a single laser, with just enough accuracy and dwell time on each target to satisfy the seekers of multiple Hellfires during their time of flight. Magic, indeed. I hope ONR succeeds.

TC

[ASOC]

Cool tech, no doubt.

Hope they can get it to work from a helo