Anti-Radar Missile Aims for More Accuracy.

AuthorErwin, Sandra I.
PositionMajor upgrade of missiles planned

U.S. Navy, Italy, Germany, developing GPS guidance kit for existing HARMs

The U.S. Navy plans to upgrade 1,000 of its existing high-speed anti-radar missiles under a program also funded by the German and Italian governments. The improvements will provide more accurate navigation and targeting capabilities, officials said.

The high-speed anti-radar missile (HARM) is a supersonic, long-range weapon that has been used by the U.S. Navy and Air Force for two decades. Its primary mission is the suppression or destruction of enemy surface-to-air missile radar, early-warning radar and radar-directed air-defense artillery systems. More than 2,000 HARMs have been fired in combat.

The tri-national project is for the engineering and manufacturing development of a kit--called precision navigation upgrade (PNU)-that will be attached to existing missiles. The PNU combines a global positioning (GPS) guidance system and an inertial measurement unit. The satellite capability allows HARM to reach the correct target, even if it loses the enemy's radar signal.

Each PNU kit will cost approximately $40,000. There are three contractors: Raytheon Systems Co., in Tucson, Ariz., BGT Missiles Division, of Germany and Alenia Marconi, of Italy.

Making HARM more precise means fewer missiles will have to be fired, said Capt. Christopher Powers, U.S. Navy program manager for defense suppression systems. "We can't continue to lob HARMs out there by the hundreds," he said during a conference of the Precision Strike Association, in Fort Belvoir, Va.

HARM was due for a hardware-based improvement, because its software upgrades had gone "as far as you can go," said Powers. The Navy's long-term plan is not just to improve the accuracy of HARM, but also to boost its performance against targets that shut down the radar after the HARM is launched.

The PNU development program with Italy and Germany should be completed by 2004, Powers said. It is not clear how many missiles these two nations plan to upgrade. The U.S. Air Force is not participating in the project, but Powers expects that, if the Navy's efforts are successful, the Air Force will join the program at a later stage.

The improved missiles are intended to be launched from F/A-18 Hornet multi-role warplanes, E/A-6B radar-jamming Prowlers and Tornado fighters. HARM is 13.7 feet long, 10 inches in diameter, has a wing span of 44 inches and weighs 800 pounds.

In the future, Powers said, HARM could be equipped with an advanced multi-mode seeker, to address the so-called counter-shut down problem. The anti-radiation homing seeker would be changed to a more modern...

To continue reading

Request your trial

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT