On September 18, 2023, during joint exercises with the Danish Navy, the US Navy for the first time carried out the transfer to the Danish island of Bornholm in the Baltic Sea and the deployment of a ground-based mobile launcher of Raytheon Standard SM-6 multi-purpose (anti-aircraft) quasi-ballistic missiles, which can be used to defeat both air, ground and surface targets. It is reported that the exercises "to protect convoys" with the deployment of this launcher ("SM-6 modular launcher system") on Bornholm will last about a week.
Ground mobile containerized launcher of Raytheon Standard SM-6 multi-purpose (anti-aircraft) missiles of the US Navy (c) of the US Navy
The ground mobile containerized SM-6 missile launcher demonstrated by the US Navy during this transfer was first shown in September 2022. This naval launcher looks structurally similar to the mobile launcher of the new American Medium-Range and shorter-range Mid-Range Capability (MRC, Typhon) missile system, which has begun to enter service with the US Army, manufactured by Lockheed Martin Corporation, using both SM-6 missiles and Raytheon Tomahawk subsonic cruise missiles (in Block IV versions and V). Both versions of the launchers (both the navy and the army MRC complex) are based on the ground version of the ship's universal vertical launcher Mk 41 in a four-container lifting version on a ground mobile containerized launcher on a trailer towed by a tractor. At the same time, the naval version of the ground-based PU looks somewhat smaller in size, and the lifting of the Mk 41 four-container package of cells is carried out on it against the movement, and not by movement, as on the MRC installation. The MRC launcher is towed by a more powerful Oshkosh HEMTT A4 M983A4 Patriot tractor (8x8).
During the trial deployment, the SM-6 naval ground mobile missile launcher was delivered to Bornholm by a Boeing C-17A Globemaster III military transport aircraft of the US Air Force.
The Standard SM-6 RIM-174A (ERAM) missile in its current version has been in service with the US Navy since 2013 and was created by upgrading the Standard SM-2ER Block IV (RIM-156B) anti-aircraft missile with an active radar homing head of the AIM-120C AMRAAM air-to-air missile, as well as equipped with an inertial-satellite correction system (in the SM-6 Block IA variant) and two-way data transmission equipment. As a result, the SM-6 missile, with a firing range of up to 250 nautical miles (up to 460 km), can hit air targets such as aircraft and cruise missiles, intercept ballistic missiles at the final stages of the trajectory, can hit sea targets and ground targets. In the variant of application from a ground-based launcher of the US Navy, the SM-6 missile should be used according to external target designation data from other platforms, both ship-based with the AEGIS integrated weapon system and aviation.
It was reported that after fiscal year 2024, a new version of the SM-6 Block IB missile being created should be integrated into the MRC army complex, which will have hypersonic (i.e. exceeding M = 5) speed and an increased range for ground and surface targets - estimated up to 400 miles (740 km). The increase in performance will be achieved by equipping the rocket with a new mainline solid-fuel engine of a larger diameter (21 inches - 533 mm), instead of the standard SM-6 solid-fuel rocket engine of the SM-2 series with a diameter of 13.5 inches (343 mm), while reducing the span of the rudders and stabilizers of the rocket, which will allow the use of the entire the diameter of the launch cells of the ship's universal vertical launcher Mk 41. Also, the SM-6 Block IB rocket will presumably receive a more powerful warhead (now the SM-6 rocket has a warhead weighing only 140 pounds - 64 kg).
It can be assumed that the SM-6 naval ground-based missile launcher will also be integrated with SM-6 Block IB missiles in the future, as well as, apparently, Tomahawk cruise missiles.
Unloading at Bornholm (Denmark) from a Boeing C-17A Globemaster III military transport aircraft of the US Air Force of a ground mobile containerized launcher of Raytheon Standard SM-6 multi-purpose (anti-aircraft) missiles of the US Navy, 09/18/2023 (c) of the US Navy
