February 25, 2008:
In the U.S. military, ground based air
defense systems get no respect. It took two decades to develop the current
Patriot system, and most of the money the system as received since it entered
service in 1984, has gone for developing an anti-missile capability. American
warplanes have controlled the skies for over sixty years, and U.S. ground
forces have not felt compelled to spend a lot on anti-aircraft systems. There
is a portable missile (Stinger) for the troops, mainly to be used against enemy
helicopters. But there's never been much in between stuff what you can carry on
your back, like Stinger, and high end systems like Patriot (which has never
shot down an enemy aircraft, but has destroyed two friendlies so far.)
In the past, there have been improvised
systems, that usually had vehicles equipped with larger heat seeking missile,
like the Sidewinder. Such a system, called the Chaparral, was used by the U.S.
Army from the late 1960s to the late 1990s. A replacement system, Avenger,
now using Stinger missiles, was introduced in 1993. But what the army really
wanted was SLAMRAAM, using a larger air-to-air missile (AMRAAM).
SLAMRAAM has been in development for
eight years. The army has been criticized for taking so long, especially since
the Norwegians put together such a system in the late 1990s. This is what inspired
the U.S. Army and Marines to do the same. But it was not a high priority
project. The main technical problem with these systems is integrating the
missiles control system into an air defense radar network. The Norwegians
simply used the older HAWK missile system (which Patriot replaced). The U.S.
Department of Defense was supposed to just adapt the Norwegian system for
American use.
Two years ago, The U.S. Marine Corps
cancelled their version of SLAMRAAM
(called CLAWS, or Complementary Low Altitude Weapons System.) The
marines didn't have the money, and didn't see an urgent enough need to go find
the money. Air defense was not a big deal when your jet fighters rule the
skies.
The U.S. Army had started work on
SLAMRAAM two years after the marines began developing CLAWS. This system
mounted four U.S. Air Force AMRAAM radar
guided air-to-air missile on a hummer. A firing battery consists of one
fire-control center, a radar (with a 75 kilometer range) and four to eight
hummers carrying missiles. The missiles have an effective range of 25
kilometers, and can knock down cruise missiles, as well as helicopters. It was
the need to knock down cruise missiles that has kept the army going.
The AMRAAM is the most modern
air-to-air missile in American service, and has its own radar for making its
final approach to its target. The Norwegian system (using AMRAAM) has been seen deployed around Washington DC,
along with U.S. Army Avengers, for the last four years, as a defense against
any terrorist aircraft attempting to attack.
The SLAMRAAM concept, as first developed in Norway, has been adopted by
several other countries (including Spain and Kuwait). Seeing all that, the U.S.
Marines then began developing their own version, called CLAWS.
A box launcher is used by the Norwegian
system (called NASAMS). The ground launched AMRAAM can hit targets as high as
13,000 feet. NASAMS was developed so that it could easily work with different
search radars. The 350 pound AMRAAM SAM costs more (about $600,000 each)
compared to the air-to-air version (about $380,000), but is basically the same
missile. The twelve foot long AMRAAM has a fifty pound warhead, and can take
down just about anything that flies, including wide-body commercial transports.
The army is starting to take some heat
from Congress over the delays in getting SLAMRAAM into service. But with a war
on, SLAMRAAM is a low priority project that is being given just enough money
and attention to keep the lights on, not to push the system out the door and
into the hands of the troops who don't really need it at the moment.
