Integrating Missile Defenses

Command, control, battle management,
communications assets are the glue that
integrates the BMD system and make
possible engagements in minutes.

by U.S. Missile Defense Agency Staff

Contrary to a common perception, the United States’ Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) system is more than a single interceptor or sensor. It is unfortunate that our highly publicized and closely monitored intercept flight tests, which have generally focused on the performance of a single interceptor, tend to convey that false image, but the reality is very different.

Missile defense interceptors vary considerably by range and speed, with some, such as the Patriot Advanced Capability (PAC)–3, capable of handling only the shorterrange threats by colliding with them in the atmosphere. Others, such as our high-speed ground-based interceptors in silos at Fort Greely, Alaska, and Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., have been optimized to destroy the higher-speed intermediate- and intercontinental-range missile payloads in space. Interceptors too may be developed to engage the threat in terminal phase as it reenters the atmosphere, in midcourse phase as it coasts through space, or in boost phase as it fires off the launch platform and ascends into space.

Similarly, missile defense sensors vary significantly. A radar can either provide a surveillance capability, which means it monitors a broad area all of the time for missile flight activity, or a precision tracking capability to deliver highly accurate information on the ballistic missile flight and its payload to the missile defense system. Interceptors and sensors may be fixed to a geographic location, ground-mobile, or sea-mobile, and we have sensors on our interceptors (visible light and infrared) and circling Earth on satellites, whose main job now is to provide launch detection.

The fact is no one missile defense element can handle this global mission by itself. We need to leverage the synergy of several missile defense elements to deal with a proliferated global threat involving different types of ballistic missiles, different threat ranges and different threat payloads. Uncertainty in the threat we face drives us to the development of a more complex system that features interdependent elements.

So the missile defense operator and developer face a daunting challenge. Theymust synchronize plans and actions of several combatant commanders; mix and match sensors and interceptors so they operate as a single system; ensure all targets are engaged with the weapon most likely to achieve the intercept; ensure no interceptors are wasted by multiple systems shooting at the same target; enable commanders to make decisions in mere minutes and communicate those decisions to the men and women operating the consoles; and enable key officials in the U.S. as well as allied countries to follow realworld missile defense events as they unfold.

The complexity of this machine befits the daunting mission: to provide a global layered missile defense capability against ballistic missiles of all ranges and in all phases of flight to protect the United States, our deployed forces, and our allies and friends.

C2BMC

In other words, we could not do this mission without an extensive command, control, battlemanagement and communications (C2BMC) infrastructure. C2BMC assets are the glue that integrates this system and makes possible engagement operations that will take place in a matter of minutes. Since the end of 2004 we have been able to provide limited defensive capabilities, and we will improve those capabilities over time by introducing more advanced technologies and improving system integration. A globe-spanning C2BMC infrastructure passes critical information from sensors to system operators who must make time-urgent decisions. Combatant commanders use this data to enhance common situational awareness and synchronize globally 24dispersed missile defense assets. This network involves state-of-the-art technology and is the nervous system of a truly revolutionary defensive capability.

The Missile Defense Agency uses spiral development to engineer, test and integrate C2BMC products into the system over time. Hardware consists of work stations, servers, processors, communications racks and equipment, situational awareness web browsers and video distribution equipment. Software consists of new and enhanced capabilities in the BMD planner, situational awareness displays and drivers, global integrated fire control and battle manager and network communications.

This global command and control foundation is unmatched in the world, and we are working on expanding this network to improve missile defense capabilities in different combatant commands and in the defense systems deployed by our international partners. There is no other mission area where you have to make sure there is simultaneous situation awareness and battle management information from the Asia- Pacific region, across the U.S., and over into Europe and the Middle East. We now have planning and execution capabilities at Omaha at U.S. Strategic Command, in Colorado Springs at Northern Command and at Pacific Command in Hawaii. We are expanding this infrastructure to the U.S. European and Central Commands.

FORCE MULTIPLIER

C2BMC is a true force multiplier by enabling the system to be greater than the sum of its parts. By integrating a land-based radar using this command, control and battle management capability, for example, with sea-based interceptors, we are able to reduce the number of BMD-capable ships needed to provide protection for a given defended area. Those ships may be deployed elsewhere. That same effect happens over and over again throughout the system where we have this flexibility in the way we combine our sensors with weapons. This, in turn, allows a dramatic expansion in the battle space, to the point where it becomes possible to envision a missile defense system that literally covers the entire face of the earth.

This integration greatly increases our capability against very challenging threats posed by in-flight ballistic missiles, countermeasures and weapons of mass destruction payloads. This ability to integrate sensors based on platforms in all geographic environments is also a true national defense asset. And there is probably no better example of this than when, late in 2007, the United States civilian leadership asked the Missile Defense Agency to come up with a plan to destroy a U.S. reconnaissance satellite.

The Department of Defense called on our country’s missile defense developers to destroy a large tank of toxic fuel onboard an out-of-control U.S. satellite about to reenter the Earth’s atmosphere. This was a very successful joint mission involving the Navy, U.S. Strategic Command, the Missile Defense Agency, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the National Reconnaissance Office and other national security offices. The success of this mission helped minimize the risk to life posed by the toxic hydrazine fuel. Missile Defense Agency engineers worked closely with the Navy to modify the interceptor and the Aegis weapon system for this onetime engagement. Using an extensively modified Standard Missile-3 interceptor and a modified Aegis Weapon System onboard the USS Lake Erie, the Navy successfully destroyed the tank in February 2008 more than 150 miles (241 kilometers) above the surface of the Earth.

The success of this one-time satellite downing mission required the integration of off-board tracking data from a sensor network deployed across a significant portion of the surface of the Earth. By itself, the Aegis ship launching the interceptor could not possibly see the satellite target, which was moving at a speed of 17,000 miles per hour, soon enough in order to be able to launch the interceptor and hit it. We needed to place our “eyes” forward and send the data back to the engagement ship. Our C2BMC infrastructure enabled us to link together several different sensor assets on land and at sea, which subsequently fed the data on the satellite’s position back to the engaging Aegis ship positioned in the Pacific Ocean, which was then able to time the launch of the interceptor without actually having seen the satellite first.

Without C2BMC, there can be no truly effective missile defense system. Without it, we would have only a loose collection of individual weapon systems that, while they might perform well in certain limited contingencies, would be incapable of getting the job done on their own. With our C2BMC networking assets, the United States can have a system that is a true layered defense system to defeat the ballistic missile threats of today and tomorrow, one that is capable on being used in several regions of the world and one that prioritizes and optimizes the decisions and use of weapons to achieve the highest payoff possible. ♦