What Mystery Threat Has the U.S. Navy So Nervous?

[asianobserve]

A new threat prompts a crash development of defenses for U.S. Navy ships.
Jojo Pappalardo
Popular Mechanics

The AN/SLQ-32 electronic warfare suite aboard the guided missile destroyer USS Hopper.

The Department of Defense produces reams of procurement documents, and the vast majority of them are mind-numbingly dull. And then there is Justification and Approval document No. 1312, which the Navy quietly issued in January.

This request, the kind of document the Pentagon generates to seek permission to award a contract without competition, seeks an electronic warfare system that can protect ships from "a newly discovered threat." The document uses very grave language to justify the $65 million procurement, citing a "need to provide a protective capability to naval ships and their crews in a critically short time frame." The first units would be installed on ships by March 2014.

Personnel with the Naval Research Lab denied comment, saying scientists "have nothing to provide concerning this research at this time." However, the document reveals some details that allow the public a glimpse of the cat-and-mouse cycles behind the development of military technology.

At issue here is the AN/SLQ electronic warfare system, which is installed on virtually all Navy vessels. The system has a couple of vital jobs, the first of which is the detection of incoming antiship missiles. The AN/SLQ sees the missiles coming, and its powerful radar can also jam the missiles' targeting sensors.

Wise militaries prepare for new threats, but they are emerging at a hectic pace, especially in the digital fields of sensors, radar, countermeasures, and guidance. The Navy's apparent hurry means there's something out there that the AN/SLQ may not be able to handle, and it's probably being developed in China.

At the end of 2009 the commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet issued a call for engineering help by issuing an Urgent Operational Need Statement to "develop, fabricate, and install an embarkable prototype" to counter the mysterious threat. (Embarkable means it can be transferred from ship to ship, as needed.) The Naval Research Lab answered the plea for help. It and defense contractor ITT Exelis designed a prototype countermeasure and tested it by 2012. The system is composed of four electronic warfare units (presumably to cover 360 degrees around the ship), a control panel, and electronic interfaces.

Now it's time to graduate the prototype to a fleet-ready product, and the Navy says there's no time to solicit bids on the project to see whether other firms can do it more cheaply. The contract calls for 24 of the systems to be delivered by 2015.

It's not much of a deductive leap to suppose that China is behind the threat that has the Pentagon so worried. China has been developing a slew of ways to keep U.S. warships far from their shores (and those of Japan and Taiwan's). These include cyber-attacks, small submarines with fast-missiles, and—most recently—the promise of antiship ballistic missiles.

China made public its work on the DF-21 ballistic antiship missile about the same time as the Navy's request. That's pretty neat coincidence, but there's no proof this is the threat. The worrisome new technology that prompted this effort could just as easily have been an upgrade to the tracking sensors of an existing antiship missile, such as the supersonic YJ-12 or CJ-20. Either way, there is a new threat in the Pacific and engineers are trying to keep the balance of power tipped toward the U.S. Navy.

Read more: What Mystery Threat Has the U.S. Navy So Nervous? - Popular Mechanics
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