By Richard Mosier
Since the fielding of the Harpoon missile in the 1970s and the original Tomahawk Anti-ship Missile (TASM) in 1982, maritime over-the-horizon targeting has been an insufficient and largely unresolved ISR capability requirement for the U.S. Navy. The Navy has had limited long-range sensors for detection and tracking, an inability to sustain continuous tracking of targets of interest after detection, and few direct tactical network exchange capabilities to pertinent commands and shooting ships from satellites and primary processing commands. The advent of weapons like Naval Strike Missile (NSM), Prompt Conventional Strike, SM-6 in anti-ship mode, Long-Range Anti-ship Missiles (LRASM), and Maritime Strike Tomahawk (MST) cannot be fully employed without the supporting ISR-T.
The emergence of the Space Force’s fully funded, Long-Range Kill Chains (LRKC) satellite program for tracking moving land and maritime targets offers the Navy the opportunity to dramatically improve fleet tactical situational awareness and over-the-horizon targeting. The satellites’ continuous, near real-time tracking of moving surface ships will provide a track continuity foundation upon which to correlate other periodic sources of ship location and identification. For the Navy, the cost to take advantage of this satellite tracking capability will be in developing and installing modifications to fleet systems to receive this high new volume of moving target indicator (MTI) tracks, automatically correlate intermittent information from other sources, and disseminate updates on tracks of interest to command and battle forces in the area, as well as at the pertinent Maritime Operations Centers (MOCs).
To realize this potential, three actions are suggested:
1. Ensure fleet requirements and wartime architectural constraints are presented and accepted in the requirements forum for the Space Force LRKC constellation.
2. Modernize MOC, big deck, and major combatant capabilities for building and maintaining the common tactical picture with LRKC inputs, plus taking advantage of the near real-time MTI track updates.
3. Incorporate AI applications to support rapid command understanding of the defensive and offensive situation at operational (MOCs) and tactical (battle force commanders, big decks, and major combatants) levels.
ISR-T for sea control is also a joint capability matter. The deployment of the Marine Corps’ new Marine Littoral Regiments MLR), equipped with truck-launched NSMs, the Army’s developing Multi-Domain Task Force (MDTF) units with its next generation HIMARS-launched Precision Strike Missiles (PrSM), and the Air Force’s LRASM-equipped bombers, will need to be networked into regional anti-ship capabilities and networks alongside navy forces. Joint partners will need the same tactical pictures against moving seaborne targets, as well as a coordination network to integrate into regional sea control missions, probably led by local naval commanders.
With a projected full operational capability in 2030, the Long-Range Kill Chains (LRKC) program offers a solution to these requirements. While the first action step is to get maritime requirements inserted into LRKC capability factors, the Navy concurrently needs to equip the fleet to be ready to exploit this new over-the-horizon ISR-T capability when this constellation reaches full operational status. Doing so could help the Navy make the most of the latest long-range weapons entering the fleet and manifest a major evolution in firepower.
Richard Mosier is a retired defense contractor systems engineer, Naval Flight Officer, OPNAV N2 civilian analyst, and OSD SES 4 responsible for oversight of tactical intelligence systems and leadership of major defense analyses on UAVs, signals intelligence, and C4ISR.
Featured Image: The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Fitzgerald (DDG 62), while participating in Exercise Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) 2024, fires the first naval strike missile from a U.S. destroyer July 18, 2024. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Jordan Jennings)
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Thank you Richard Mosier for an excellent discussion on over the horizon (OTH) targeting of naval assets. Relying on satellite data in a hot war seems a little fraught. SAT data will likely degrade or even disappear early on in the contest. There are less expensive OTH sensor sources available such as HF Surface Wave Radar and drone borne radio receivers with RF over optical pipe to the ships deck. US can afford and deploy the big $ sat solutions along with deployment lag.. The rest of us might need to act rather faster and cheaper.