F-35s Could Shoot Down North Korean Missiles
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k2xFhchIgkyxdqiJLNcM4WTFUrYqrisiCTUULC5CRBK9gsLkJEJJliLFJIkQSZYLC5CSwSZYiSkhIglewSUsRIgleQkpISIJXkiSkkSISTJCRckKpYJMkBdgEEokJACsiSbAABYJAACwSAAEhIAAWCwAASXRxADJIcpWQACbBYAALBYABKJCQAAkiSQAiQkAAJJTmAAwuuFU+HmQmJVADnbLpXEhcakUUkC2ykI7tSXYVQAFstVxClFJACyzD/2Q==
Imagine if seconds after North Korea’s Hwasong-15 intercontinental ballistic missile lifted off on Nov. 28, a
Lockheed Martin F-35armed with four
Raytheon AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missiles (Amraams) engaged the missile and destroyed it.
This isn’t some far-fetched concept or marketing ploy. It is one way the U.S.
Defense Department could conduct “kinetic” intercepts of North Korean or Iranian missiles in the future.
In early November, at an event in Washington hosted by the Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance, Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) threw his support behind this concept. He said F-35s should be shooting down missiles before they can escape the atmosphere with their devastating nuclear payloads. Hunter said North Korea is only 75 mi. (120 km) wide in some places, well within the range of an AIM-120D, and Iranian missiles can be targeted from inside Kuwait.
The Pentagon has surface-to-air missiles capable of taking out enemy missiles at most phases of flight from midcourse to terminal, but it comes up short in the boost or ascent phase. This first 300 sec. is the most crucial time to take out a missile threat, especially in the first 90 sec. when it is traveling slowest and hottest. The government has tried dozens of ways, even mounting a megawatt-class laser weapon on a
Boeing 747, the YAL-1. But most options are impractical and expensive.
Using fighters would be far easier, if it works, since they are designed to take out airborne threats. The high-flying
Boeing F-15 would be an excellent candidate if it has the right sensors. But the Lightning II’s combination of sensors, sensor fusion, and stealth make it the ideal candidate for getting within range of the climbing missile and taking it out.
“It’s like an act of God,” Hunter says. “You have F-35s, you have Amraams, and you can shoot these things down as they go up.”
Tom Lawhead, who heads the Air Force Joint Strike Fighter Integration Office, says
Northrop Grumman has been testing the F-35’s ability to detect and track ballistic missiles for several years. The company developed the F-35’s six-sensor, electro-optical/infrared AAQ-37 distributed aperture system and APG-81 active electronically scanned fire control radar, and it has been investing in applications for missile defense.
In October 2014, Northrop conducted an end-to-end test of this concept, using a ground-based distributed aperture system and radar-equipped testbed aircraft.
The information was correlated via datalink to produce intercept-quality targeting data, accurate enough for an Amraam or
Aegis guided-missile destroyer to use.
Lawhead says missile defense isn’t part of the F-35 program of record, and much more analysis needs to be done. But he says it is feasible, and Northrop believes it would take about three years from start to integration to unlock this potential in the F-35.
He says operational F-35 squadrons would need to be trained on how to perform this mission, and pilots must have the authority to shoot the missiles down the moment they pop up. “Deep-strike missions really are the bread and butter of the F-35,” he notes.
At the same event, Missile Defense Agency Deputy Director Rear Adm. Jon Hill confirmed that using aircraft to take out ballistic missiles in the boost phase is one of many concepts being considered as part of the Trump administration’s Ballistic Missile Defense Review. He says the agency is also investing in high-energy laser technology mounted on persistent, high-altitude unmanned aerial vehicles. It would be far more difficult and expensive to keep F-35s in a holding pattern near an area of interest, but it could be done.
Hunter, a member of the House Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee, says his office has been working with the Los Alamos and Livermore national laboratories to come up with a road map for using AIM-120-equipped F-35s for missile defense. The distributed aperture system was introduced to detect rocket and artillery fire and cue countermeasures, but the technology has far more applications. It could even allow U.S. Army tank drivers to see through their vehicles.
http://aviationweek.com/defense/f-35s-could-shoot-down-north-korean-missiles
