Killing Speedboats

The USS Boxer just got an upgrade for its old-school SeaSparrows, integrating an EO/IR camera into the fire-control system. The camera allows the crew to ID small craft out to 11nm, and the FCR was able to illuminate a 7-foot RRIB well enough to get 3/3 direct hits at 4nm. Essentially, this means we're using a SAM as an ATGM. That's not at all unreasonable, especially considering the apparent difficulty the Russians had dealing with a swarm of Georgian gunboats on the Black Sea. I would hope the EO/IR camera system would be equally capable of integration with VLS ESSMs as well.

It does bring up an interesting question though. We're loading up ships of all sizes now with .50cals, manually aimed 25mm chain guns, EO/IR directed remote gun mount chain guns, and we've even given the Phalanx an upgrade for use against small craft. It seems we've got those bases covered, especially now that we're using guided missiles at short ranges (which, after the Black Sea skirmish, I think is preferable to gun mounts).

Why then is the entire LCS ASUW module designed to blow up speedboats? We don't need a module specifically designed for this task; it's part of the expected capability of all our ships. In my mind, an ASUW package should give it the capabilty to take on other warships, something that, again, I think should be part of the expected capability of our ships, independent of any mission module. If we're going to have SeaSparrows (and maybe ESSMs) to blow up speedboats, then it seems even more senseless for the LCS's primary ASUW package to be the NLOS/Netfires missile system. The only added capabilty the NLOS/NetFires has over a speedboat-killing SeaSparrow is over-the-horizon capability. That isn't all that significant, because ROE is going to require a ship to fire warning shots, sound the horn, etc. to warn the craft off before they kill it. So the over-the-horizon engagements would only be against craft you can tell are hostile by looking at them from the UAV's IR camera. Things like gunboats, FACs, and corvettes. News flash: we already have an over-the-horizon weapon for these guys. It's called the Harpoon. It's already receiving an upgrade to enhance its littoral targeting capability--include with that an IR capability (like it's cousin, the SLAMM-ER) to keep it ahead of the stealth-ship game and you're golden.

I just don't get it. With ESSM and Harpoon, you can protect yourself from the littoral ASCM threat, deal with FACs and warships OTH, and still deal with the small craft swarming threat. What sense does it make to sacrifice meaningful AAW and ASUW capability just so you can blow up a speedboat a bit futher out than you otherwise could--a capability unlikely to ever be utilized?

It seems to be the NLOS/NetFires system would be better utilized in a Strike mission module, to attack small targets ashore. (You know, like counterfire on the C-802 battery that just fired a salvo at you. Assuming, of course, you have the air defense capabilty to survive that salvo.)