Army Indirect Fire Protection System and New Guided Missile Program

[Moose]

"WASHINGTON — The U.S. Army will demonstrate Long-Range Precision Fires technology from a precision-strike missile to hypersonics and ramjet capabilities within the next couple of years, according to the service’s LRPF modernization team lead."

This sounds like they don't know what they want. The "Long Range Precision Fires" is a missile that swaps out one ATACMs for two less capable missiles (much smaller payload) in the same cell. Now they throw in "hypersonics" and "ramjet"? ???

It's a bit of word salad, but they could be talking about anything from a hypersonic demonstratot that uses LRPF components (booster, launcher, maybe guidance?) to a more general "notional ramjet LRPF upgrade."

 

[bring_it_on]

It's a bit of word salad, but they could be talking about anything from a hypersonic demonstratot that uses LRPF components (booster, launcher, maybe guidance?) to a more general "notional ramjet LRPF upgrade."

The article covers the entire portfolio which includes LRPF but also Artillery and railgun demonstrations for ranges covering short (100 km and below), medium 499 km and below and long range. Reference to hypersonics and ramjet likely applies to the guns where they will be looking to fire the HVP and perhaps a propulsion stack as marauder mentioned HERE. The longer ranged INF compliant fires could be something that has longer range than the LRPF but spends more than 50% of its time inside the atmosphere which would mean that it is not a Ballistic Missile going by the definition in the INF treaty language. If it carries a booster than it would also not be a cruise missile..

Another way to get after fast speeds and longer ranges is through ramjet technology. When a projectile leaves the cannon and is flying through the air, the air is fed into the projectile itself and ignites an internal propellant, which causes further acceleration, according to Maranian.

The Pentagon’s Strategic Capabilities Office, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, and Space and Missile Defense Command, outside of the Army, are looking at a number of classified programs, he said.

The SCO is particularly looking at the 58-caliber cannon tube because it is a base requirement for hypersonics.

DOD FY19 RDT&E Budget

High-speed/hypersonic weapons are being developed to ensure the continued military superiority and strike capability of the United States including freedom of
movement and freedom of action in areas protected by anti-access/area denial defenses. Current weapon system demonstrations and technology development
programs include high-speed and hypersonic air-breathing missiles, maneuvering reentry and boost-glide weapons, hypersonic gun-launched projectiles, and air-
breathing space access vehicles. These systems require development of conventional and high-speed turbine, ramjet, scramjet, and combined cycle engines; high
temperature materials; thermal protection systems (TPS); and thermal management systems.

 

[sferrin]

Jeez. Just came across this in a folder I've been using for reference. (Though they better be looking at it a lot sooner than 2030)

(Long Range Maneuverable Fires)

 

[bobbymike]

https://breakingdefense.com/2018/03/army-will-field-100-km-cannon-500-km-missiles-lrpf-cft/

The Army is modernizing three artillery systems: 155 cannon, the cheapest option, for the close fight against the enemy's frontline forces; guided rockets for the deep fight against enemy reinforcements and supply lines; and missiles, the most expensive munitions, for very deep or even strategic strikes against targets in the enemy rear and homeland.

 

[jsport]

Jeez. Just came across this in a folder I've been using for reference. (Though they better be looking at it a lot sooner than 2030)

(Long Range Maneuverable Fires)

Thank you for posting. yes sooner the better and a GMLRS Light on regular LMTV (hopefully much cheaper) is one the smartest ideas in a while.

 

[jsport]

https://breakingdefense.com/2018/03/army-will-field-100-km-cannon-500-km-missiles-lrpf-cft/

The Army is modernizing three artillery systems: 155 cannon, the cheapest option, for the close fight against the enemy's frontline forces; guided rockets for the deep fight against enemy reinforcements and supply lines; and missiles, the most expensive munitions, for very deep or even strategic strikes against targets in the enemy rear and homeland.

wait, what, again
"The metallurgy of the new barrel should be robust enough to fire even more advanced munitions like hypersonic and ramjet rounds that enter service beyond 2023, Maranian said, ..."

 

[sferrin]

Jeez. Just came across this in a folder I've been using for reference. (Though they better be looking at it a lot sooner than 2030)

(Long Range Maneuverable Fires)

Thank you for posting. yes sooner the better and a GMLRS Light on regular LMTV (hopefully much cheaper) is one the smartest ideas in a while.

What are your thoughts on this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkkfE5yHejc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxePhkdIo0o

Personally I don't know why the US isn't scrambling as fast as it can to add this capability.

 

[jsport]

Always believed in GMLRS SDB (almost an old concept now) but had no idea of the flight regime capability.

2030s though a gun launched SDB B)

 

[sferrin]

Always believed in GMLRS SDB (almost an old concept now) but had no idea of the flight regime capability.

Definitely wouldn't be viable against DEW CIWS or even something like TOR.

 

[marauder2048]

Such is the demand that practically all of the demil'ed M26 rocket motors that would have constituted the
feedstock for GLSDB are being converted into practice rounds.

 

[sferrin]

Such is the demand that practically all of the demil'ed M26 rocket motors that would have constituted the
feedstock for GLSDB are being converted into practice rounds.

It does make you wonder if anybody is awake at the wheel.

 

[jsport]

Such is the demand that practically all of the demil'ed M26 rocket motors that would have constituted the
feedstock for GLSDB are being converted into practice rounds.

Hope this means new higher energy motor replacement for all MLRS program ie energetics. GMLRS is key.

 

[marauder2048]

I presume GMLR-ER is the tail-controlled GMLRS.

 

[bring_it_on]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbzzcRqxxTw&t=4s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=080dOw-5Uns

 

[bring_it_on]

Army aims to flight test Precision Strike Missile in 2019

Barry Pike, program executive officer for missiles and space, told reporters here that the projection for initial operational capability in fiscal year 2027 was "based on a certain funding profile and risk."

The cross-functional team construct was "very effective" because it incorporated senior leaders in the process, enabling them to adjust the time line. Pike emphasized the value of this acceleration, given that ATACMS has been out of production for 11 years.

A decision to "add resources to the program" helped shift it to the left by two years, he explained. "That was really executed through the cross-functional team, with the operational community coming in" and emphasizing the urgency of the capability gap.

Additionally, Pike said there was an opportunity to accelerate prototyping "from the front end of the program," employing other transaction authority to "get the program started quicker." Through collaborative efforts involving industry, the acquisition and operational communities, officials determined that vendors could "deliver prototypes for flight testing starting next year. So in 2019, we'll actually be able to get some results from first flight tests."

This approach could pay dividends for operational forces, he continued.

"If we demonstrate sufficient progress next year in flight testing, and we have an urgent operational need from a combatant command, we can actually build some number of the early prototypes to deliver capability in late '22 or '23 -- ahead of what was previously planned, even a '25 IOC."

 

[bobbymike]

https://www.raytheon.com/news/feature/long-range_precision_fires?WT.mc_id=breakingdefensenativerms_ausa_gf&utm_source=breakingdefense&utm_medium=native&utm_content=rms_deepstrike&utm_campaign=rms_ausa_gf&_hsenc=p2ANqtz--YHdp4B5qv-ll4XKNTKMjEHBw74JIf_50TmhvoCs5E4_v_TQ-1qrWoIpREr08l0oO7IFgKrwEJeR8Be9tziXHO-hCLpA&_hsmi=61693996

What do you do with an old missile? Replace it with one that's faster, stronger, cheaper to deploy and much more accurate.

Better yet: Replace it with two.

Raytheon is developing a long-range missile for the Army’s Precision Strike Missile requirement that will allow the Army to field twice as many missiles on its existing launch vehicles. Thin and sleek, it will fire two missiles from a single weapons pod, slashing the cost. The new missile also flies farther, packs more punch and has a better guidance system than the current weapon.

“We're looking to replace a design originally from the 1980s," said Greg Haynes, a Raytheon manager leading the company’s campaign for a new precision strike weapon. “Missile technology has come a long way.”

The ability to fit two DeepStrike missiles in an existing launcher is a significant leap over existing tactical missiles.

“Since most of these were produced in the late '90s, you run into what we call ‘end of shelf life,’ where the motors and such are no longer reliable,” said former Army colonel John Weinzettle, now a program manager in Raytheon’s Advanced Missile Systems business.

 

[bring_it_on]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMtXjJ6INv4

 

[bobbymike]

https://breakingdefense.com/2018/03/army-accelerates-air-missile-defense-five-years-mshorad-mml-lasers/

AUSA GLOBAL FORCE SYMPOSIUM: To counter MiGs, Sukhois, Hinds, and missiles, the US Army is rushing anti-aircraft and anti-missile systems into service up to five years ahead of its original schedule. The head of the Army’s Air & Missile Defense Cross Functional Team, Brig. Gen. Randall McIntire, told me here the goal is to build on today’s uneven defenses — a lot of Patriot and a little THAAD to kill ballistic and cruise missiles, a few Stingers to down aircraft — and create multiple overlapping layers of protection.

The next five years will see a steady drumbeat of new systems:

2020: The first battery of MSHORAD, highly mobile, lightly armored Stryker vehicles with anti-aircraft guns and missiles to protect mobile frontline forces from enemy helicopters and drones. That’s five years ahead of the original fielding date, 2025.
Late 2020 or early ’21: A new network link between Patriot and THAAD missile defense batteries, so Patriot can both protect THAAD from air attack and use THAAD’s longer range radar to find targets. This link was originally going to wait until the IBCS network was fielded in 2022 (below).

2021: The IPFC Multi-Mission Launcher (MML), a truck-mounted system bigger and less mobile than MSHORAD. MML’s larger magazine of larger missiles can reach targets at higher altitudes and longer ranges, especially cruise missiles and fixed-wing aircraft, as well as helicopters.

2022: The IBCS network, which will share targeting data among all air and missile defense systems, allowing any launcher to fire at targets spotted by any radar. (IBCS will incorporate the THAAD-Patriot link). This is the one system that’s been delayed, although the decision to do so predates the creation of the CFTs: IBCS was originally going to be fielded this year, but software development proved daunting.

2023: The first prototype platoon of 50 kilowatt lasers mounted on Stryker vehicles, which will join MSHORAD missile launchers in frontline forces to defend against small drones. That 2023 date isn’t final, McIntire told the AUSA conference here: “We’re looking at, can we move that to the left a little bit?”

The Army is also working on a larger truck-mounted laser — less mobile but more powerful — in the 100 kW range. McIntire and his fellow officers didn’t offer a fielding date for that one. The Army has previously said it will be test-fired in 2022, but don’t be surprised if it’s accelerated.

Services accelerating weapons technology I guess with the inflow of funds we are seeing "More 'bucks' more Buck Rogers.

 

[bring_it_on]

Right now the "accelerating" bit is only buying back capability which the Army had for years with the Avenger SHORAD. I guess the picture that they painted for themselves that SHORAD would no longer be necessary in the active service didn't really pan out. Hopefully, the mindset or even the leaders responsible for such shortsighted decisions wouldn't be allowed anywhere near any force structure decision of any consequence (if they are still around). I liked the fact that Tom Karako on the Air-Defense panel brought up the fact that the Army had been looking for a 360-degree sensor on the patriot for more than a quarter-century. Hopefully, those currently in charge of the Directed Energy portfolio will be slightly more competent and actually fielding systems of significance (50kW or more) in the next few years.

 

[bring_it_on]

...

 

[bobbymike]

You have this full report?

 

[DrRansom]

Strategic fire cannon artillery? That sounds weird - unless they want to use a really exotic round / railgun.

 

[bring_it_on]

You have this full report?

Sorry..was too large to upload along with the images.

https://www.scribd.com/document/375245365/Ausa-Global-Lrpf?secret_password=jEqHdgSMRXlczebd5ivF

 

[bobbymike]

No worries thanks for the link.

 

[bring_it_on]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xic0OcTSegg

 

[bobbymike]

https://www.armytimes.com/news/your-army/2018/04/12/heres-how-the-army-is-trying-to-catch-up-to-russia-and-china-on-missiles-artillery/?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=Socialflow

 

[bring_it_on]

Marines will host counter-UAS demo using non-developmental equipment

The Marine Corps plans to host a demonstration of a non-developmental, counter-unmanned aerial system missile in fiscal year 2019 or 2020 while working with the Army on a long term solution for both services, according to an official.

Lt. Gen. Robert Walsh, deputy commandant for combat development and integration, told Inside the Navy April 18 following a House Armed Services tactical air and land forces subcommittee hearing the service set aside $4.5 million in FY-18 research and development funding for the demonstration.

The plan is to integrate the non-developmental solution into the Ground/Air Task-Oriented Radar and Common Aviation Command and Control System, he said.

"What we've got right now is a . . . very high end capability with G/ATOR and CAC2S, [but] we don't have shooters to go with it," Walsh said.

The National Defense Strategy directs the Marine Corps to focus on the higher-end threat. Walsh said the service views both G/ATOR and CAC2S as a huge benefit in integrating the air and ground domains.

"What we need is something larger than the path that we were going down, [which was] integrating Stinger onto a vehicle," he said. "What we can do now is get something commercial-off-the-shelf [and] see what it is."

Walsh said the demonstration will help the Marine Corps achieve an "early capability" while it continues working with the Army on the second block of the Indirect Fire Protection Capability program. IFPC Block II will have a counter-rocket, artillery and mortar capability, while the first block is designed to defeat unmanned aircraft systems and cruise missiles.

 

[bring_it_on]

...

 

[bobbymike]

https://www.armytimes.com/news/your-army/2018/04/23/this-army-unit-tested-the-newest-paladin-howitzer-by-firing-hundreds-of-rounds-a-day-for-weeks/?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=Socialflow

Cannon-cockers with the 1st Infantry Division’s “Bonecrusher” Battery fired hundreds of artillery rounds a day for two weeks straight as they tested the Army’s newest upgrades to the Paladin howitzer.

And some of the soldiers in the battery who participated called it the most “intense and exhilarating” training they’ve experienced.

Capt. Joseph Brown, battery commander with B Company, 1st Battalion, 5th Field Artillery Regiment, 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team said the training was conducted much like what the soldiers would see at the National Training Center in Fort Irwin, California — even though they were at Fort Riley, Kansas, the unit’s home station.

The soldiers started the testing with a muster and move to the field, and then they started firing for almost 20 hours a day in “near continuous operations over the course of the next two weeks.”

 

[jsport]

...

Paladin's developments are great for rapid sustained fire technology that Crusader started realizing but a Strategic Strike Artillery appears needs Light Gas and tanks need an ETC as railguns are still very risky and were judged back in the 80s as impractical for tanks.

https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2017/03/plans-for-new-us-super-tank-with.html

 

[TomS]

Paladin's developments are great for rapid sustained fire technology that Crusader started realizing but a Strategic Strike Artillery appears needs Light Gas and tanks need an ETC as railguns are still very risky and were judged back in the 80s as impractical for tanks.

https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2017/03/plans-for-new-us-super-tank-with.html

That page has some major misinformation on it. The statement that the XM360 uses ETC is simply false -- it's just a lightweight 120mm firing the same ammunition as the current 120mm tank guns.

 

[jsport]

Here is the often read discussion of FCS gun alternatives back in 1997 which could prompt discussion today. Binary liquid propellants that have been patented after 97 render LP much safer and deserve a look.

https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/news/1997/5fcs97.pdf

 

[marauder2048]

Fort Sill's 2018 Fires Conference

http://swoknews.com/local/lockheed-martin-forefront-long-range-precision-fires-systems

 

[bobbymike]

https://www.defensenews.com/digital-show-dailies/aaaa/2018/04/30/army-extending-range-of-airborne-munitions/

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The Army is working to extend the range of its airborne precision munitions in order to provide greater standoff in future contested environments.

Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville said at the Army Aviation Association of America on April 26, that the service needs to make sure it is extending the range of its current capabilities.

The service prioritized long-range precision fires as its top modernization effort, and it is taking steps to extend the range of its cannon artillery on the ground in the short term.

Matching that capability in the sky, the Army aviation’s research, development and engineering arm is looking to increase standoff ranges for its helicopters to effectively fire its munitions.

 

[bobbymike]

https://breakingdefense.com/2018/05/army-needs-2b-a-year-more-for-big-six-52-for-air-missile-defense/

UPDATED with expert comment WASHINGTON: The Army needs “an additional $2-3 billion per year,” above its already generous 2019 budget, to fund its Big Six modernization priorities in the 2020s, says a new strategy document submitted to Congress. All told, the Army plans to spend over $13 billion on the Big Six over the five years from 2020 to 2024.

More than half of that money, $6.8 billion, goes to air and missile defense, ostensibly only the fifth of the six priorities. Not quite a quarter, $3 billion, goes to the No. 4 priority: Army command, control, and communications networks, including alternatives to GPS. By contrast, the top three priorities — long-range artillery and missiles, armored vehicles, and aircraft — get less than 20 percent combined, $2.6 billion.

 

[bobbymike]

http://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/articles/2018/5/8/army-push-for-greater-lethality-presents-opportunities-for-armaments-industry

Indianapolis, Ind. — Lethality is now a "hot issue” in the Army and resources are being realigned to push these capabilities forward. And that's good news for industry, a service official said May 8.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen such strong emphasis on lethality growth from small arms all the way up to artillery systems all at the same time. That’s almost unprecedented,” said Anthony Sebasto, executive director of the enterprise and systems engineering center at the Army’s Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center. “In the past they’ve all come in cycles but this is … a wholesale change,” he added.

The Army has identified long-range precision fires, next-generation combat vehicle, future vertical lift family of helicopters, air and missile defense, soldier lethality and the network as its primary areas of focus as it prepares for conflict with peer competitors such as China and Russia. Armaments touches on five of those six categories, Sebasto said at the National Defense Industrial Association’s Armament Systems Forum in Indianapolis, Indiana.

 

[marauder2048]

Tail-Controlled GMLRS test at WSMR.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBNVkar_aPw

 

[bobbymike]

https://www.army.mil/article/205512

WASHINGTON -- Within a decade, if not sooner, leap-ahead technologies like lasers, hypersonic weapons, mobile and secure networks and unmanned/autonomous air and ground vehicles will likely reside in combat formations, said the Army's secretary.

Peer threats from China and Russia -- nations also developing these technologies -- make fielding these systems absolutely necessary, said Secretary of the Army Mark T. Esper, who spoke Wednesday at the Center for a New American Security here.

The secretary provided a glimpse into some of these new capabilities that the Army is developing, in partnership with industry, as part of its six modernization priorities.

LONG-RANGE PRECISION FIRES

"The Army is looking at hypersonics as game changer in its No. 1 modernization priority: long-range precision fires," Esper said.

Hypersonic weapons can fire rounds or a projectile hundreds of miles, he said. "That gives us an incredible ability to reach out and hurt an adversary or at least to hold him at bay," he said. Further, it would buy time for maneuver forces to secure objectives on the battlefield.

Projectiles of hypersonic weapons travel at speeds of Mach 5 or more using a supersonic combustion ramjets. Mach 5 is a speed well above high-performance jets that cruise at Mach 3 or 4 at their fastest. Experts say that cruise missiles or even unmanned aerial systems could eventually be modified to make them hypersonic.

NEXT GENERATION COMBAT VEHICLE

The second modernization priority, a next generation combat vehicle, will replace the aging Bradley Fighting Vehicles, which no longer have the power or space to haul modern communications gear or advanced weaponry, he said.

For development of the NGCV, the Army is not averse to opening the competition up to foreign partners as well as American companies, he added. The Stryker, a highly successful vehicle, wasn't made in America.........................

 

[jsport]

"The Army is looking at hypersonics as game changer in its No. 1 modernization priority: long-range precision fires," Esper said.

Hypersonic weapons can fire rounds or a projectile hundreds of miles, he said. "That gives us an incredible ability to reach out and hurt an adversary or at least to hold him at bay," he said. Further, it would buy time for maneuver forces to secure objectives on the battlefield.

Projectiles of hypersonic weapons travel at speeds of Mach 5 or more using a supersonic combustion ramjets."

Artillery needs to eclipse Aviation as the premiere. This has been projected by DSB since the early 2000s.

Modern & Future IADS are too dangerous. The ultimate low cost disposable armed swarm UAV is a guided artillery shell (for targets not in complex terrain) .

 

[marauder2048]

https://www.army.mil/article/205605/fort_bliss_fa_soldiers_impact_modernization_during_army_tactical_missile_systems_modification_test

HOB sensor test.