유도탄 LCS에서 테스트중인 미육군의 컨테이너 VLS

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샌디에이고에 배치된 LCS-28 USS 사바나함에 Mk.70 컨테이너형 VLS가 실려있는 장면이 포착됐다고 합니다. Mk.70 VLS는 SM-6 VLS와 토마호크를 발사 가능하며 미육군의 타이푼 프로그램의 일부로 개발돼 작년 12월 4개가 육군에 납품됐다고 하네요. 

VLS 외에 TPQ-53 레이더도 목격됐다고 하네요. 

https://news.usni.org/2023/09/13/army-long-range-missile-launcher-spotted-on-navy-littoral-combat-ship

Army Long Range Missile Launcher Spotted on Navy Littoral Combat Ship

By: Sam LaGrone

September 13, 2023 6:24 PM • Updated: September 13, 2023 8:37 PM

An Army MK 70 missile launcher on the flight deck of Littoral Combat Ship USS Savannah (LCS-28) in San Diego, Calif. Photo obtained by USNI News

This post has been updated with additional information on the radar system seen on USS Savannah (LCS-28) .

A portable missile launcher capable of firing a combination of long-range anti-ship and anti-air weapons was spotted this week undergoing testing aboard a Littoral Combat Ship in San Diego, Calif., according to photos provided to USNI News.

Based on a series of photos reviewed by USNI News, the launcher is a Lockheed Martin MK 70 containerized vertical launching system that is capable of firing both a Raytheon Standard Missile 6 and a Tomahawk Land Attack Missile. It was spotted on the flight deck of Independence-class LCS USS Savannah (LCS-28), which was pier-side in San Diego, according to a USNI News review of the images.

When asked by USNI News, the Navy acknowledged the veracity of the photographs but did not provide additional details.

“USS Savannah (LCS-28) will participate in a live-fire demonstration during the fourth quarter of 2023 that will include a containerized launching system. More information will be provided after the evolution is complete,” Naval Surface Forces spokesperson Cmdr. Arlo Abrahamson said in a statement.

The MK 70 launcher is part of a U.S. Army program called Typhoon, part of the service’s emerging family of land-based precision weapons that vary in range from a few hundred to thousands of miles. Lockheed Martin delivered four of the prototypes to the Army in December. The technology is based on repurposing the existing MK 41 launching systems that are the standard vertical launch system for the majority of the U.S. fleet and several allies.

Lockheed Martin Image

“That partnership enabled us to leverage technologies across our ships, launchers and combat systems programs to design, develop, integrate and quickly deliver a solution to meet the Army’s mission requirements,” Joe DePietro, Lockheed Martin general manager and vice president, said in a statement at the time.

The Army’s program follows the U.S. development of land-based Tomahawk launchers, which started in 2019 after the expiration of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty. The INF treaty banned ground launchers for specific types of long-range missiles.

“When signed by the United States and the Soviet Union on December 1987, the INF stipulated both nations would ban all land-based ballistic and cruise missiles with ranges between 500 and 5,500 kilometers,” reported USNI News at the time.
“The ban applied to missiles with nuclear or conventional warheads but did not apply to sea-based or air-delivered missiles, according to a June 27, 2019, Congressional Research Service report about the treaty.”

Prior to the end of the INF treaty, the U.S. placed land-based MK 41s in Romania and Poland as part of its Aegis Ashore ballistic missile defense system. The Navy says the cells contain SM-3 BMD missiles and not INF-banned land-based Tomahawks. In addition to the Standard Missile family and TLAMS, Lockheed has also tested deploying an Army Patriot anti-air PAC-3 missile from a MK 41.

The Marines have developed mobile launchers for Tomahawks and the Naval Strike Missile as part of the Force Design 2030 service reforms.

전략능력실과 @USNavy가 빠르게 발전시키고 있는 획기적인 교차 영역, 교차 서비스 개념인 USV 레인저의 모듈식 발사대에서 발사된 SM-6를 확인해 보세요. 이러한 혁신이 합동 능력의 미래를 이끌고 있습니다. #DoDInnovates pic.twitter.com/yCG57lFcNW

— 국방부 🇺🇸 (@DeptofDefense) September 3, 2021

The launcher on Savannah’s flight deck was seen alongside what appears to be an Army Lockheed Martin AN/TQ-53 radar. According to the Army, the Q-53 is a counterfire radar designed to help locate the origin of incoming, indirect attacks.

A previous version of this post misidentified the radar as a Marine Corps AN/TPS-80 Ground/Air Task-Oriented Radar (G/ATOR). It’s unclear if the Q-53 was wired into the MK 70, but the launcher has been tested with multiple radars, USNI News understands.

The test on Savanah has the hallmarks of other experiments developed by the Defense Department’s Strategic Capabilities Office. SCO was set up in 2016 to develop rapid capabilities.

For example, SCO fired an SM-6 from the autonomous Ghost Fleet Overlord test ship Ranger in 2021 using a similar launcher to the MK 70.

A Pentagon spokesman for SCO told USNI News the Pentagon had nothing to add beyond the statement from the Navy.

The new tests come as the Navy develops lethality and survivability enhancements to the Littoral Combat Ship fleet, based on a written summary of the effort reviewed by USNI News this week. It’s unclear if the demonstration will be part of the larger LCS upgrade effort.

[백선호]

SM-6를 지대지로 쏘려나요? 지대공으로 쓰려면 뭔가 걸맞는 레이다가 같이 있어야 하는데...

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지대공으로 쓰기엔 패트리어트가 있으니 하이마스 - 토마호크 사이의 중거리 지대지 탄도미사일로 쓰려는 걸까요? 굳이 SM-6를 통합하는 이유가 궁금하긴 합니다. 계획상 명칭은 중거리 전략화력시스템(SMRF; Strategic Mid-Range Fires) 이긴 하네요. ( https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/IF/IF12135 )