Kinetic Energy Interceptors On Subs, CG(X) Cruiser?
The Navy should consider installing more types of ballistic missile defense systems on its ships, to counter the rising variety of enemy missiles, a military analyst with the Lexington Institute advised.
Merrick Carey is CEO of the institute, a think tank near the Pentagon focusing on defense and other issues.
“The Navy should consider exploring other complementary interceptor options if it aims to be effective at more than regional/theater missile defense around the Asian and European perimeter,” Carey asserted.
“The Kinetic Energy Interceptor could offer one such capability. It is probably too large to be accommodated aboard existing destroyers and cruisers without extensive and expensive modifications. But there are other hull options that might be worth exploring — converted Trident submarines, amphibious hulls, and our next generation cruiser, CGX.”
That latter ship, the cruiser, would be a heavier version of the nascent DDG 1000 destroyer heading into construction of the first hulls.
The in-development Kinetic Energy Interceptor (KEI) may become an orphan, as far as its initial assigned role of shooting down enemy missiles just after they launch. That role likely will be filled by the Airborne Laser (ABL), also in development.
But if the ABL shoots down a target missile in a test next year and fills the missile defense “boost phase” capability, the KEI then may find new life with a mission of shooting down enemy missiles in their midcourse of flight.
“In today’s context, it makes far more sense to think in terms of a portfolio of missile defense capabilities that can range from theater to intercontinental, from boost to terminal, and potentially handle rogue states as well as emerging great powers like China and Russia,” he argued.
Placing missile defense capabilities on ships confers the advantages of mobility, he continued. As well, it may be that fixed and immovable land-based missile defense sites are more vulnerable to enemy attack than mobile sea-based systems, he said.
To read Carey’s monograph in full, please go to
http://www.lexingtoninstitute.org on the Web.