AIR-LAUNCHED WEAPONS

Sea Power, Jan 2005

CRUISE MISSILES

AGM-84K SLAM-ER

BRIEFING: The AGM-84K Standoff Land-Attack Missile-Expanded Response (SLAM-ER), a retrofit upgrade to the baseline SLAM missile system, provides the Navy with a precise standoff-outside-area-defense (SOAD) capability. Prior to the first Gulf War, U.S. strategists generated a requirement for an air-launched land-attack missile that could be launched outside the range of enemy air defenses. The AGM-84E SLAM, a derivative of the Harpoon, was fitted with Global Positioning System (GPS) guidance, a Maverick Imaging Infrared (UR) seeker, a Walleye data link and man-in-the-loop control. SLAM was widely deployed with F/A-18 and P-3 squadrons.

The SLAM's potential spurred further development to provide even greater improvements in range, accuracy, warhead penetration, dive angle and mission planning with the SLAM-ER upgrade. The SLAM-ER is a day/night, adverse-weather, over-the-horizon and precision-strike missile. SLAM-ER fills an operational need within the U.S. and allied armed forces for a surgical strike capability against high-value, fixed or relocatable land targets and ships at sea or in port, at standoff ranges greater than 135 nautical miles. It features an adaptive terrain-following, passive UR seeker, precise aimpoint control through man-in-the-loop (MITL) data link control and improved penetrating warhead.

For precision guidance, SLAM-ER utilizes an internal navigation system integrated with a GPS receiver/processor for midcourse guidance, and the Maverick infrared seeker with an advanced weapon data link for terminal aimpoint refinement and target identification. SLAM-ER is the first weapon to field Automatic Target Acquisition (ATA), a breakthrough that uses the Boeing proprietary general pattern-matching algorithm to match a reference photographic image of the target with the HR seeker's image of the target. This technology provides pilots with high confidence target cueing of SOAD targets in cluttered urban environments, while retaining the combat-proven man-in-the-loop control for operational aimpoint refinement and/or battle-damage indications. The ATA capability was successfully fielded in December 2002.

A moving land target capability for SLAM-ER is currently completing development and will soon enter developmental and operational testing. This unique capability, when fielded, will allow the pilot to engage high value moving land targets at SOAD ranges by utilizing third party target updates from targeting platforms such as the Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System. The third party targeting data is transmitted to the F/A-18 via Link 16 and automatically retransmitted to the SLAM-ER en route via the AWW-13 data link pod. The SLAM-ER moving land target capability is currently scheduled for fleet release in late fiscal year 2005.

SLAM-ER's integration with the F/A-18 aircraft provides a quantum leap in precision-strike capability by increasing the combat radius and strike effectiveness of the Hornet and can be controlled by the Super Hornet. SLAM-ER has also been integraled on other Navy aircraft, including the P-3C and S-3B. SLAM-ER's first allied application is on the F-15K under development for the Republic of Korea.

SLAM-ERs have been fired by F/A-18s against targets in Iraq and - along with SLAMs fired by P-BCs - against targets in Afghanistan in 2001 during Operation Enduring Freedom. In May 2000, the Department of Defense declared the missile operationally effective and ordered it into full-rate production. The Navy's inventory objective is 700 SLAM-ER missiles. Some 500 SLAM missiles have been retrofitted with the SLAM-ER upgrade.

AGM-84D HARPOON

BRIEFING: The AGM-84D Harpoon is an autonomous, allweather, over-the-horizon antiship missile that uses midcourse guidance with a radar seeker to attack surface ships. Its lowlevel, sea-skimming cruise trajectory, active radar guidance and warhead design assure high survivability and effectiveness. The Harpoon and its launch-control equipment provide the Navy and Air Force the capability to interdict ships at ranges well beyond those of other antiship missiles. The Harpoon missile is capable of being launched from surface ships, submarines, ground mobile coastal-defense sites or from aircraft.

The Harpoon - now deployed by 27 nations - was first introduced to the U.S. Navy in 1977 to serve as its basic antiship missile for fleet-wide use. In 1979, an air-launched version was deployed on the Navy's P-3 Orion aircraft and is now also deployed on F/A-18, S-3 and B-52 aircraft.

SHORT-RANGE TACTICAL MISSILES

AGM-65 MAVERICK

BRIEFING: The AGM-65 Maverick - an air-to-surface tactical missile designed for close-air support, interdiction and defense suppression - is effective against a wide range of tactical targets including armor, air defenses, ships, ground transportation and fuel storage facilities. Mavericks can be launched from high altitudes to tree-top level and hit targets ranging from a distance of a few thousand feet to 13 nautical miles at medium altitude. The AGM-65F used by the Navy has a 300-pound penetrating warhead and the modified infrared seeker tracking function for antiship attacks. The infrared guidance system is optimized for ship tracking. The guidance section has either a rounded glass nose for electro-optical imaging, or a zinc sulfide nose for imaging infrared. The center section (warhead) utilizes two types of warheads: (a) a cone-shaped warhead fired by a contact fuse in the nose and (b) a delayed-fuse penetrator in the heavyweight warhead that penetrates the target with its kinetic energy before firing. The latter is very effective against large, hard targets.