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WASHINGTON – The stunning growth of the Chinese fleet over the past decade has prompted the U.S. Navy to plan a full-on buying spree of ship-killing missiles over the next five years, according to projections in the sea service’s Fiscal Year 2021 budget documents.
In his opening remarks before rolling out the Navy’s new spending request, the service’s budget director pointed directly at China’s expanding naval force as aiding U.S. budget priorities.
“China has grown their battle fleet to about 335 surface ships, and that’s occurred over the last 10 years as they’ve shifted from a build-up of their homeland defense forces and moved to the sea in an expansionist role around the globe,” Rear Adm. Randy Crites said.
“As we look to the future of even greater global trade and greater unpredictability, American naval power has never been more important.”
The Navy’s proposed 2021 budget calls for buying 850 missiles between the years 2020 and 2021 with the sole function of seeking and destroying enemy ships at range.
The anti-ship missile buying binge comes as experts project the People’s Liberation Army Navy’s fleet will balloon to as many as 420 vessels by 2035. By comparison, the 2016 budget request contained just 88 sole-purpose anti-ship missiles to be procured across a five-year plan.
And while shipbuilding might have faltered in 2021, the Navy’s budget for weapons procurement of all kinds increased by $800 million over 2020′s $4.1 billion request.
The proposed 2021 weapons procurement budget rose $1.7 billion over the 2016 request just five years ago.
But in the realm of anti-ship missiles, the jump in investment is staggering.
For example, Lockheed Martin’s F/A-18 Super Hornet-launched Long-Range Anti-Surface Missile, developed jointly with the Defense Research Projects Agency and incorporates target recognition, some level of autonomous routing and extended range for killing enemy ships at a significant standoff. The unclassified range is 200+ nautical miles.
The Navy’s 2017 budget submission bought 10 LRASMs, and projected buying 25 per year until 2020, for a total buy of 85 missiles. Today, the inventory (including 2020’s request for 17 LRASMs) stands at about 99 missiles.
But in 2021, the Navy’s significantly boosting its request for the stealthy missiles, requesting 48, which would boost the inventory by 50 percent, and plans to order 48 per year for the next four years, according to Navy Fiscal Year 2021 budget documents. All told, the Navy is looking to buy 210 of the missiles between 2020 and 2025.
And that’s not the only investment in ship-killing technology that’s picking up in 2021.
Investments in ship killers include the beginning of a program that coverts Raytheon’s Tomahawk missile into a “Maritime Strike Tomahawk,” which incorporates a seeker and some level of target discrimination that will allow it to hit a moving target. The Tomahawk has an unclassified range of 900 nautical miles.
A Navy brief says Maritime Strike Tomahawk’s new seeker kit "enables the capability to hit moving maritime targets through mid-course guidance via third party or seeker mode, to a terminal seeker area of uncertainty." The missile is slated to be declared operational in 2023.
The Navy plans to buy 44 of the Maritime Strike seeker kits in 2021, then ramping up significantly from there. The Navy is planning on buying 451 of the upgrade kits between 2021 and 2025.
‘Turning point’
The service is also planning to start buying significant numbers of the Naval Strike Missile, which is the Kongsberg/Raytheon ship-launched over-the-horizon missile. The missile, designed to give the lightly armed warships some significant teeth for operating in the Pacific, deployed on the LCS Gabrielle Giffords last year, along with Northrop Grumman’s MQ-8C Fire Scout unmanned helicopter drone which will be used for over-the-horizon targeting.
The Navy is planning to buy 15 NSMs, down three from last year’s buy, but has programmed 189 between FY2020 and 2025.
In addition to 850 LRASM, Maritime Strike Tomahawks and Naval Strike Missiles, the Navy is planning to buy a further 775 of Raytheon’s SM-6 missile, which is primarily an anti-air missile but has a surface mode, over the same time-frame. That brings the total buy of missiles with ship-killing potential to 1,625 between 2020 and 2025.
Eric Sayers, a former Senate Armed Services Committee staffer and former aid to Pacific Commander Adm. Harry Harris who is now and Adjunct Senior Fellow at Center for a New American Security, said the budget represents a turning point in the Navy’s long-neglected anti-ship mission.
“This budget is a great signal of the Navy's intent to finally get serious about the quality and quantity of the anti-ship missile inventory,” Sayers said. “Then-Pacific Commander Admiral Willard asked for this capability over a decade ago and for years we were buying them just a few at a time.
“The request for LRASM, Naval Strike Missile, and Maritime Strike Tomahawk is a real turning point in anti-ship budget seriousness.”
Another step the Navy should take would be to move out on putting LRASM inside the vertical launch tubes of its surface combatants, Sayers said.
“Now that we are moving to buy LRASM in numbers, it would be great to see the Navy move to integrate it onto its large surface combatants,” he said. “It is also encouraging that allies like Australia and Japan are moving simultaneously to procure these high-end weapons.”
On Friday, the State Department announced that Australia had been cleared to purchase up to 200 LRASMs, a purchase of nearly $1 billion.
https://www.defensenews.com/naval/2...avy-begins-stockpiling-ship-killing-missiles/
In his opening remarks before rolling out the Navy’s new spending request, the service’s budget director pointed directly at China’s expanding naval force as aiding U.S. budget priorities.
“China has grown their battle fleet to about 335 surface ships, and that’s occurred over the last 10 years as they’ve shifted from a build-up of their homeland defense forces and moved to the sea in an expansionist role around the globe,” Rear Adm. Randy Crites said.
“As we look to the future of even greater global trade and greater unpredictability, American naval power has never been more important.”
The Navy’s proposed 2021 budget calls for buying 850 missiles between the years 2020 and 2021 with the sole function of seeking and destroying enemy ships at range.
The anti-ship missile buying binge comes as experts project the People’s Liberation Army Navy’s fleet will balloon to as many as 420 vessels by 2035. By comparison, the 2016 budget request contained just 88 sole-purpose anti-ship missiles to be procured across a five-year plan.
And while shipbuilding might have faltered in 2021, the Navy’s budget for weapons procurement of all kinds increased by $800 million over 2020′s $4.1 billion request.
The proposed 2021 weapons procurement budget rose $1.7 billion over the 2016 request just five years ago.
But in the realm of anti-ship missiles, the jump in investment is staggering.
For example, Lockheed Martin’s F/A-18 Super Hornet-launched Long-Range Anti-Surface Missile, developed jointly with the Defense Research Projects Agency and incorporates target recognition, some level of autonomous routing and extended range for killing enemy ships at a significant standoff. The unclassified range is 200+ nautical miles.
The Navy’s 2017 budget submission bought 10 LRASMs, and projected buying 25 per year until 2020, for a total buy of 85 missiles. Today, the inventory (including 2020’s request for 17 LRASMs) stands at about 99 missiles.
But in 2021, the Navy’s significantly boosting its request for the stealthy missiles, requesting 48, which would boost the inventory by 50 percent, and plans to order 48 per year for the next four years, according to Navy Fiscal Year 2021 budget documents. All told, the Navy is looking to buy 210 of the missiles between 2020 and 2025.
And that’s not the only investment in ship-killing technology that’s picking up in 2021.
Investments in ship killers include the beginning of a program that coverts Raytheon’s Tomahawk missile into a “Maritime Strike Tomahawk,” which incorporates a seeker and some level of target discrimination that will allow it to hit a moving target. The Tomahawk has an unclassified range of 900 nautical miles.
A Navy brief says Maritime Strike Tomahawk’s new seeker kit "enables the capability to hit moving maritime targets through mid-course guidance via third party or seeker mode, to a terminal seeker area of uncertainty." The missile is slated to be declared operational in 2023.
The Navy plans to buy 44 of the Maritime Strike seeker kits in 2021, then ramping up significantly from there. The Navy is planning on buying 451 of the upgrade kits between 2021 and 2025.
‘Turning point’
The service is also planning to start buying significant numbers of the Naval Strike Missile, which is the Kongsberg/Raytheon ship-launched over-the-horizon missile. The missile, designed to give the lightly armed warships some significant teeth for operating in the Pacific, deployed on the LCS Gabrielle Giffords last year, along with Northrop Grumman’s MQ-8C Fire Scout unmanned helicopter drone which will be used for over-the-horizon targeting.
The Navy is planning to buy 15 NSMs, down three from last year’s buy, but has programmed 189 between FY2020 and 2025.
In addition to 850 LRASM, Maritime Strike Tomahawks and Naval Strike Missiles, the Navy is planning to buy a further 775 of Raytheon’s SM-6 missile, which is primarily an anti-air missile but has a surface mode, over the same time-frame. That brings the total buy of missiles with ship-killing potential to 1,625 between 2020 and 2025.
Eric Sayers, a former Senate Armed Services Committee staffer and former aid to Pacific Commander Adm. Harry Harris who is now and Adjunct Senior Fellow at Center for a New American Security, said the budget represents a turning point in the Navy’s long-neglected anti-ship mission.
“This budget is a great signal of the Navy's intent to finally get serious about the quality and quantity of the anti-ship missile inventory,” Sayers said. “Then-Pacific Commander Admiral Willard asked for this capability over a decade ago and for years we were buying them just a few at a time.
“The request for LRASM, Naval Strike Missile, and Maritime Strike Tomahawk is a real turning point in anti-ship budget seriousness.”
Another step the Navy should take would be to move out on putting LRASM inside the vertical launch tubes of its surface combatants, Sayers said.
“Now that we are moving to buy LRASM in numbers, it would be great to see the Navy move to integrate it onto its large surface combatants,” he said. “It is also encouraging that allies like Australia and Japan are moving simultaneously to procure these high-end weapons.”
On Friday, the State Department announced that Australia had been cleared to purchase up to 200 LRASMs, a purchase of nearly $1 billion.
https://www.defensenews.com/naval/2...avy-begins-stockpiling-ship-killing-missiles/
