By Ann Roosevelt

Raytheon‘s [RTN] Surface Launched Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile (SLAMRAAM) system recently successfully destroyed an unmanned aerial vehicle target and intercepted a cruise missile target at White Sands Missile Range, N.M.

The limited user test-firing data will be used to validate key system capabilities and potential enhancements in addition to providing operational assessment.

“Successful completion of this test firing demonstrates the maturity of the design and its operational capability when in the hands of soldiers,” said Sanjay Kapoor, vice president for Patriot Programs at Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems. “SLAMRAAM is the most cost-effective system in development to combat the increasing unmanned aerial vehicle and cruise missile threat to our deployed forces, high-value fixed assets and population centers.”

The primary objective of this series of tests was to demonstrate soldiers’ ability to operate the system in a tactical environment. In addition to maneuvering and emplacing the system, the soldiers had to demonstrate the ability to properly operate the system to detect, identify, track, engage and destroy both types of threat.

The Defense Department recently announced that SLAMRAAM would be funded through development and testing and will maintain an emergency operational capability (Defense Daily, Jan. 7).

“In the most recent user tests, soldiers manned the system and conducted the tests under the direction of the Army SLAMRAAM Product Office and Army Test and Evaluation Command,” said Jeff Pinasco, Business Development Director for Integrated Air Defense Capabilities at Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems. “The effort aims at final certification of the system design, taking all the steps necessary to finish system design, development and demonstration that would normally precede a production decision.”

As the Army has recently decided to defer production at this time, the system design would be put on the shelf, but if needed could “rapidly transition to production,” Pinasco said.

The program office will procure some spares, he said, preserving the test assets as a potential emergency operational capability (EOC) assets. The Army program office has three launchers on the Family of Medium Tactical Vehicles (FMTV), two launchers on HMMWVs , and some Integrated Fire Control Stations (IFCS) C2 assets. The MPQ-64 Sentinel radars would likely be put back into the Army inventory as it is a fielded capability.

While the SLAMRAAM System Design and Development continues toward completion, the SLAMRAAM program is considered part of the Army’s proposed $29 billion in cost savings over five years, part of a broader DoD-wide effort to save $150 billion over five years.

Last fall, Raytheon said SLAMRAAM successfully completed a second ballistic test vehicle firing, this from a new FMTV platform (Defense Daily, Dec. 15). That test was conducted in September at Eglin AFB, Fla. Data from the tests provided input to engineering-level assessments supporting system fielding requirements.

Raytheon produces the AMRAAM missile, used in the SLAMRAAM system, and has proposed integrating the AIM-9X Sidewinder into the SLAMRAAM architecture to offer a complementary missile for further operational flexibility against a range of threats the system could counter, at a lower total price–which the company offered the Army.

The AIM-9X advantage is not only that it is significantly less expensive, but it also answers a concern commanders in the field have about detection and targeting by adversary Reconnaissance, Surveillance, and Target Acquisition (RSTA) capabilities. The Sidewinder is very capable against unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) and unmanned aerial sensors (UAS), Pinasco said.

There is international interest in SLAMRAAM, the company has said in the past. Additionally, a version of the system, the National Advanced Surface-To-Air Missile System, protects the National Capitol Region 24/7.