By Geoff Fein
Lockheed Martin [LMT] demonstrated earlier this month that its system for integrating missiles with a ship’s vertical launch system (VLS) can also be used to deploy the Navy’s Nulka decoy, according to a company official.
Lockheed Martin set out to provide the Navy with some flexibility in what they could install in VLS tubes as well as expand a ship’s mission, Tim Fouts, business development manager launching systems, told Defense Daily recently. “That’s what the Extensible Launching System (ExLS) was designed for,” he said.
“This test we conducted last week took that to fruition and proved the concept out,” Fouts added.
Lockheed Martin was also able to demonstrate affordability, he said.
“We said we could cut integration costs in half,” Fouts said, and this month’s test at Eglin, AFB, Fla., was a validation of that.
The flight test culminated three years of development and integration efforts to validate the ExLS architecture. It also demonstrated the new launcher in a fully tactical configuration, according to a company statement.
ExLS enables the rapid deployment of completely assembled weapons and munitions, such as the Nulka, to augment traditional VLS missions and eliminate the need for separate topside launchers.
The first vertical launch of Nulka off board countermeasure test rounds was achieved by installing ExLS in a VLS cell. The munitions adapter is what will get changed out along with the munition specific electronics, depending upon what missile will be fired from the VLS, Fouts said.
“For Nulka, there is an adapter that holds four Nulkas. We reuse some of the Nulka system hardware that the Navy has already qualified in our subsystem electronics,” he added.
That has all been developed, Fouts noted.
Lockheed Martin also developed an adapter for the Non-Line-of-Sight (NLOS) launcher. The company designed and developed the NLOS container launch unit and the electronics. According to Fouts, the Navy had a list of things they were integrating into NLOS. Lockheed Martin said it could integrate any one or all of those items if the company developed the system interfaces, he added.
“We went through and developed a package that integrated NLOS,” Fouts said. “[We] have that hardware ready to go.”
While the Army canceled NLOS, there are some discussions ongoing within the Navy exploring continuing with NLOS, Fouts said.
The program was under development by NetFires LLC, a joint venture by Raytheon [RTN] and Lockheed Martin. Raytheon made the precision-attack missiles (PAM).
NLOS, along with PAM, was to be a significant part of the Littoral Combat Ship’s surface warfare mission package.
Lockheed Martin is also working with Raytheon on an ExLS integration effort for the Rolling Airfarme Missile (RAM) Block 2, Fouts said.
“We’ve got a concept design for the munition adapter. We are working it with them right now on the next level of details–how we would reuse their electronics,” he said. Because using existing system software and electronics, and using as much that’s qualified, helps lower the integration cost. We are working through some of that right now.”
There is also a manufacturer of unmanned air vehicles (UAV) that has approached Lockheed Martin that’s also interested in the ExLS technology because of the flexibility and ability to reload at sea with it, Fouts added.
The international folks like that…you can expend one, pop it up, throw it over the side…the expended canister…and do a reload if you’ve got it available.
The Australian Navy is providing funding to BAE Systems Australia, the Nulka original equipment manufacturer, to conduct tests of the ExLS, Fouts said.
That flight test, planned for next year, will use a non-VLS ExLS, he said.
“There is a stand alone variant–a one cell VLS,” Fouts added. “For [surface] combatants that have VLS, we have a drop-in [ExLS] and for new construction, or backfits that don’t have the Mk 41 VLS, or other VLS variants, you can have this drop in and be a one deck load out.”
In addition to Australia, he added that two other countries have expressed interest in the technology.
“We haven’t even finished development and they are already asking for it,” Fouts said.
ExLS was originally built to meet a requirement for DDG-1000, he added.
“[The Navy] wanted to put Nulka in a VLS cell. We are continuing down that path,” Fouts said. “The requirement [for DDG-1000] is still there. How they satisfy that requirement…we are in that trade space.”
At one time, Lockheed Martin’s ExLS was a material solution. However, Fouts noted the company was never selected to provide that solution.
Where Fouts does see a significant market for ExLS is with the Navy’s DDG-51 class of destroyers and other surface combatants with VLS tubes.
“There is an opportunity for a mid-life launcher replacement program for Nulka. The current launchers are hitting their 10-year mark and are having considerable wear on them,” he said. “We know the maintenance costs are not getting any cheaper, and one of the things we offer, all that corrosion is limited to a deck and hatch and not the entire system.”
In the future, as the Navy upgrades or develops Nulka variants to keep pace with changing threats, having that flexibility of plug-and-play into a VLS tube will provide the Navy significant advantages, Fouts said.
“You could have another payload variant without disturbing your infrastructure,” he added. “We do give them a lot of flexibility.”
Fouts said Lockheed Martin is targeting deployment of ExLS with the Navy’s Advanced Capability Build 14 or 16. “That’s probably the gateway.”
Lockheed Martin has integrated more than 20 missile and canister variants with ExLS, he said.
“We didn’t want to violate or infringe upon…legacy system interfaces because that is where a lot of the cost would come from,” Fouts added. “We maintain the same mechanical, same electrical, same environmental…everything [sailors] were used to seeing in an above deck configuration, and re-hosted it in a VLS.”