Sea-Based Boost Phase NMD Based on Existing Systems
Various proposals for using currently available technology to perform sea-based boost phase
NMD have circulated in the missile defense community. The proposals involve deploying,
near states of concern, existing Aegis ships with
interceptors borrowed from other defense systems; the most commonly cited interceptors
are the Standard
anti-aircraft missile, the
THAAD TMD missile
or, less frequently, the GBI.
These arrangements are typically supplemented with the SBIRS-Low
infrared sensor constellation currently being developed for the ground-based NMD program
The Standard missile lacks the total acceleration and divert energy needed to engage rogue-state ICBMs other than a possible North Korean ICBM launched from a coastal site. There is probably little utility in a sea-based NMD system employing an interceptor smaller than the GBI. Yet plagued by repeated test failures of the kill vehicle, and with the booster yet to be tested at all, operational availability of GBI is not possible to predict in any meaningful way.
An interceptor sufficiently far-reaching for NMD applications would be much too large
for the Aegis cruiser’s vertical launch tubes. One possibility would be fit similar
cruisers with smaller numbers of larger tubes, but the U.S. Navy is considering a new very large ship design for NMD. Cost, schedule, and self-protection are serious issues that remain to be addressed.
Rear Adm. Rodney Rempt, Assistant Chief of Naval Operations for missile defense, proposed on June 14, 2001 that the Navy could deploy:
- Within 12 to 18 months at a cost of $150M to $200M, an “emergency” missile defense against North Korea, and within four to five years at a cost of $1.4B to $1.8B, an enhanced system against Libya as well as North Korea
- A global NMD system addressing “all known future threats” within nine years at a cost of $8B to $12B.
Other than claiming that there would be “no showstoppers” he did not provide specific information on the details of these systems, nor of how they would deal with countermeasures. In the absence of supporting evidence, FAS finds R Adm. Rempt’s claims to be highly non-credible.
The administration's FY02 Budget Estimate devotes $50 million to alternative sea-based boost-phase systems.
Maintained by Michael Levi