When will the us Navy receive its first hypersonic missiles
On October 28, national security adviser Robert O'brien said that all destroyers of the US Navy will be equipped with hypersonic missiles, which surprised the naval leadership: it was unaware that the United States Navy was already in the midst of major changes. The arrival of a completely new long-range hypersonic weapon into service on surface and underwater ships was a big surprise for the sailors. And even in such a short time – from 2022 to 2025.
The system, called the Long Range Hypersonic Weapon ("long-range Hypersonic weapon") or LRHW, is a strategic weapon. This is a new class of ultra-fast, long-range maneuvering missiles that can be launched from ground platforms. The system is a universal solid-fuel brsd or AUR, equipped with a universal maneuvering warhead with a hypersonic flight speed of Common Hypersonic Glide Body (C-HGB) in the block 1 modification, capable of reaching speeds of more than 3,800 miles per hour. C-HGB warheads are supposed to equip the weapons systems of the army, air force and Navy. The development is based on the experimental hypersonic warhead Advanced Hypersonic Weapon (AHW). During testing, the combat unit reached a speed of Mach 8.2. The AUR rocket is solid – fuel, two-stage, length-7.44 meters, body diameter-887 mm. Starting weight-8000 pounds (3600 kg). The launch range is 1,600 kilometers. The missile should enter service with the Virginia SSN-774 and Arleigh Burke DDG-51 type destroyers, and it will be received not only by the latest series of destroyers, but also by the well-worn Flight I series. Since the new rocket will not be included in the standard mark 41 vertical launcher in terms of weight and size, a new VPM ATC was developed for it.
With the long-awaited fleet rearmament plan and 30-year shipbuilding program still awaiting approval at the White house weeks after defense Secretary mark Esper announced the end of its discussions, it remains unclear whether a potentially large-scale attempt to arm surface ships with hypersonic missiles is feasible. You need to ask the current trump administration. Defense Department officials wanted to release plans for hundreds of new ships in November, but the Office of the budget has yet to approve the program.
Smaller for the same price
Speaking at the Portsmouth Navy yard in Maine, O'brien added new intrigue to the storyline, continuing his long-held dream of building a large and deadly Navy.
"The Navy's conventional rapid global strike program will provide the ability of hypersonic missiles to hold targets at risk of destruction from long distances,"O'brien said." this capability will be primarily deployed on our new Virginia – class submarines. Eventually, all three modifications of the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer will use this capability."
Block V-series submarines built starting in 2019 will have an additional middle section of the Virginia payload module (VPM), increasing their overall length. VPM modules are added to four VPT modules of the same diameter but higher height, located in the middle line, with seven Tomahawk missiles each, which will replace some of the capabilities lost when the Ohio-class conversion submarines were withdrawn from the fleet. Initially, eight new modules with a payload were planned, but this was later abandoned in favor of installing four modules with a total length of 70 feet (21 m) between the operating and engine compartments.
The VPM module can carry medium-range lrhw ballistic missiles with four in each silo, for a total of 16 missiles. Adding VPM will increase the cost of each submarine by $ 500 million (in 2012 prices). The additional costs will be offset by a reduction in the total number of submarines by four units. Later reports say that as a cost-cutting measure, VPM modules will only carry the SLCM Tomahawk and possibly unmanned underwater vehicles (UUV), in which case the additional cost is now estimated at $ 360-380 million per boat. It is reported that the VPM launch modules will be similar in design to those installed on the Ohio-type SSB. In July 2016, General Dynamics received $ 19 million for VPM development. In February 2017, General Dynamics – another 126 million dollars for the construction of block V series submarines equipped with the VPM system.
The VPM module was developed by BWX Technologies (the company also creates missile blocks for Columbia-class submarines), but production is carried out by BAE Systems.
On the development of a universal VPM payload module for a Virginia-type submarine. Starting with the Block III series (the head submarine – North Dakota SSN-784), two vertical VPT (Virginia Payload Tube) launchers are installed on the Virginia – type submarines instead of the bow 12 vertical Tomahawk missile LAUNCHERS. Although the VPT is called a payload module, which implies the use of various options for its equipment, it is actually designed to accommodate six Tomahawk MISSILES. The design of the VPT modules seems to be similar to the launch modules for the RC installed on the Ohio-type SSGN. Starting with the Block V series (SSN-802 lead submarine, construction started in 2017), the submarines will be equipped with two VPT launch modules (12 KR) and an additional universal VPM payload module placed in the middle part of the submarine. Each VPM module can be used to house cruise missiles or Autonomous / remote-controlled underwater vehicles. But the standard load is cruise missiles – each VPM module includes four vertical launch shafts with a diameter of 2108 millimeters (83 inches), a length of 21 meters (70 feet), approximately similar to the VPT module, they contain launch containers of increased length and have seven cells with a diameter of 533 millimeters to accommodate seven Tomahawk MISSILES. Thus, the VPM module accommodates 28 cruise missiles, and the total ammunition of the Virginia Block V series of submarines is 40 cruise missiles in vertical modules (VPT – 2x6 and VPM – 4x7), or launch containers with four cells with a diameter of 890 mm for LRHW missiles are installed in the mines of the VPM modules.in total, up to 16 hypersonic lrhw missiles are placed in the VPM modules. In 2013-2014, it was announced that the launch modules for VPM will be based on the design of launch shafts for Trident D5 SLBMs, which are being developed for a new generation of Columbia-type SSBNs (the Ohio Replacement program).
Surface carriers
The addition of the Arleigh Burke destroyers to the new rearmament program was a new touch that had not previously been noted in the Navy's plans or in the 2021 defense budget allowances passed by the house of representatives and the Senate.
Upgrading all three versions, known as Flight I, II, and III, of the Arleigh Burke destroyers will be a huge challenge for the Navy and its shipyards, which are already trying to repair and refit the ships in time.
This is a terrible idea for several reasons, said Brian Clark of the Hudson Institute. He explained that the oldest ships would need to extend their service life in order for the upgrade to be justified: this would probably squeeze another ten years or so of service out of them. The oldest ships built in the 90's are already more expensive to maintain and operate than the newer Flight II and Flight III. "They are in the last decade of their existence, and their operating costs and support costs are 30 percent higher than Flight II," Clark said.
The hypersonic missiles being developed by the Navy in conjunction with the army will be larger than the missiles currently carried by 67 Arleigh Burke destroyers that require major repairs. For the newest ships in the Flight III series – the first to be delivered in 2024-the addition of hypersonic weapons will give a new challenging mission.
In any case, it will take some time before the announced hypersonic weapons appear. Earlier this year, Vice Admiral johnny wolf, Director of the Navy's strategic systems programs, said that his service plans to test its first hypersonic missile from a submarine by the mid-2020s, as work is already well underway to equip the Virginia-class submarine with this weapon.
Conventional rapid global strike weapons are being developed as part of a partnership with the army, which buys a hypersonic unit for both agencies, and the Navy pays for a rocket booster. The army plans to deploy a battery of four launchers with four missiles each in 2023, while the Navy will need several more years to develop a technically more sophisticated naval version designed to launch from submerged Virginia-class submarines.
Us lawmakers have expressed interest in placing conventional rapid global strike weapons on surface ships.
In the national defense Act, the house armed services Committee's strategic forces Subcommittee called on the Navy to explore the possibility of deploying its experimental hypersonic missile aboard three Zumwalt-class destroyers and submit a report three months after the bill was passed. The NDAA is awaiting final conferences, and the issue is scheduled to be reviewed again in December.
"The new missiles are so big that it doesn't look like a Harpoon launcher that you can just put somewhere on the ship," Clark said. " It's big enough and heavy enough to really affect the center of gravity and buoyancy of the ship. This is not an easy modification."
In line with comments from Navy officials that the service will first focus its efforts on placing these missiles on submarines, Navy spokesman captain Danny Hernandez said: "They are on the right track to place the first conventional rapid strike systems on the Virginia. As for destroyers, in accordance with the 2020 NDAA, the Navy guarantees that the technology will be transferred to surface-based platforms."
China's Hyper-entanglement
Given the engineering, budget, and calendar issues involved in implementing O'brien's plan, his comments may have been less about actually transforming the fleet than about sending signals to Beijing and Moscow.
"From the Chinese point of view, when they see this, they count the ships and how many missiles are on this ship, on this, on this… This will force the Chinese to go back and do their calculations again, " said Brent Sadler, senior research fellow for naval weapons and advanced technology at the heritage Foundation.
Sadler, a former naval officer who worked for PACOM and the China branch of the Navy headquarters at the Pentagon, added that " the messaging is designed to make it harder to count threats to China." The scale of the rearmament program is striking: the new hypersonic missiles will receive 67 already built destroyers, seven destroyers under construction, and all the Virginia boats of the Block V series, starting with SSN-802, a total of 37 boats. Theoretically, this will require more than 1,760 lrhw missiles, although almost half of the modules will be filled with Block V Tomahawks.
Sergey Ketonov
Military-industrial courier newspaper, published in issue # 45 (858) for November 24, 2020
