Robert Johnson and Walter Hickey
Business Insider
As the Navy directs its attention, and the majority of its fleet, to distant parts of the Pacific, concern about ship’s safety becomes paramount.
America’s ships are getting expensive and the thought of a well placed missile sending one or more of them to the bottom of the ocean has surely caused more than one military planner a restless night.
To help keep that from happening Raytheon has produced an elaborate Air and Missile Defense Radar (AMDR) system for the Navy.
The AMDR uses a two bands of radar to asses incoming threats, determine the priority in which they need to be addressed, neutralizes the threat, and keeps monitoring the site to make sure the target is down and out.
Raytheon released an animated video, via their website, that illustrates the AMDR’s capabilities and how the design could protect the fleet, even in the face of a multi-pronged attack.
The following is a series of screenshots from the video, and a description of what the radar targeting system is doing at various points its counterattack.
Our tour begins with a US task force traveling an unnamed body of water in hostile territory
This task force consists of six destroyers defending a carrier — the lead destroyer is carrying the AMDR system
Here’s a cutaway from the lead ship, showing how the AMDR relays communications and radar waves — the yellow ‘S’ represents a particular band of radar
The system’s radar reaches out in four directions offering complete 360 degree coverage of the area
The lead ship is then found and targeted by enemy forces…
…which turns out to be an enemy submarine that launches a cruise missile at the convoy
China has a new submarine-launched missile, as well as two kinds of subs to launch it from.
At the same time an Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile (IRBM) is launched from land miles away
The AMDR then picks up an additional threat from these two cruise missiles launched at the convoy
The missiles are just part of a full on attack that includes this small boat packed with explosives
The final phase of the attack slips into place when two jets —bearing a striking resemblance to Chinese Su-30MKKs — take to the sky and join the fray
By the time the fighter jets have plotted their course the AMDR has locked on to each individual threat
The AMDR’s uses two types of radar with the X-Band tracking low-altitude targets
And that’s what tracks the missiles launched by the submarine…
…and the boat filled with explosives
But the S-Band radar, ideal for searching and destroying high altitude targets, zones in on the IRBM just like it did with the jets
Using the AMDR— the lead ship messages the rest of the fleet to coordinate the counter-attack
Two Raytheon SM-2 missiles take out the incoming fighter jets
Raytheon’s Sea Sparrow Missiles intercepts and destroys the incoming missiles from the land and sub
With the most immediate threats now neutralized the ship addresses the waterborne targets
The boat is eliminated with the ship’s 5-inch gun
And the submarine meets its end with a single torpedo shot
Finally, the AMDR determines its time to focus on the ballistic missiles and fires Raytheon’s SM-3s — part of the Aegis missile system
With all threats neutralized the AMDR returns to its passive monitoring state and allows the convoy to continue on its way