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Defense
Industry News - USA |
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New, Larger Raytheon Standard Missile-3 Moves From Design to Testing |
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A new, more powerful version of the missile-hunting Standard Missile-3
has passed from design to the testing phase, Raytheon announced during
a conference in Poland on Wednesday, Oct. 30. The new Standard Missile-3
Block IIA, developed in cooperation with Japan, features a larger kinetic
warhead and bigger rocket motors that allow it to defend broader areas
from ballistic missile threats. The SM-3 Block IIA is also the centerpiece
of the European missile defense system. |
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A Raytheon Standard Missile-3 Block IA is launched during a Japanese
test of their ballistic missile defense capability.
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“We’re
now ready to move the SM-3 Block IIA from design to build,” said
Wes Kremer, vice president of Air and Missile Defense Systems at Raytheon
Missile Systems. “To make this happen we’ve partnered with
Mitsubishi and the Missile Defense Agency to execute a very thorough
and thoughtful design plan. What this really means is that we’re
lowering our risk as we move into future flight testing.”
The Critical Design Review verified that the missile’s design
will meet the stringent performance requirements necessary to defeat
threats and keep the program on track for 2015 flight testing.
This announcement followed the recent 26th successful intercept of another
variant, the SM-3 IB, in early in October. |
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PACIFIC OCEAN (May 15, 2013) A Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) Block 1B interceptor
missile is launched from the guided-missile cruiser USS Lake Erie (CG
70) during a Missile Defense Agency and U.S. Navy test in the mid-Pacific.
The SM-3 Block 1B successfully intercepted a target missile that had
been launched from the Pacific Missile Range Facility at Barking Sands
in Kauai, Hawaii. Lake Erie detected and tracked the target with its
onboard AN/SPY-1 radar. The event was the third consecutive successful
intercept test of the SM-3 Block IB missile. (U.S. Navy photo/Released)
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The Standard
Missile-3 Block IIA will be deployable on land as well as at sea. It
will have two distinct new features: larger second and third stage rocket
motors and a different version of the kinetic warhead, which destroys
threats by slamming into them.
Kremer made the announcement on the sidelines of the 2013 AIAA Multinational
Ballistic Missile Defense Conference in Warsaw. More than 300 participants
from 20 nations gathered at the conference to discuss the increased
role of missile defense on a global scale.
Potentially, ships using either SMART-L radars or the Aegis system could
carry SM-3, Kremer said.
“This allows for collaboration and share of burden -- but more
importantly, we’d fill coverage gaps for others areas of Europe.”
Kremer said.
Beyond the current cooperative development agreement between the U.S.
and Japan for SM-3 Block IIA, other navies have expressed interest in
the interceptor, including the Netherlands, Germany, Spain and Denmark.
Currently, U.S. Navy ships carrying SM-3s deployed off Europe’s
coast provide the continent’s only “upper tier” defense
from the growing threat of ballistic missiles, but this week in Romania,
broke ground on the first land-based SM-3 site. Another land-based site
will be deployed by the U.S. in Poland in 2018. |
