Navy asks RTX Raytheon for ESSM Block 2 radar-guided shipboard air-defense missile booster sections
WASHINGTON – Missile experts at RTX Corp. will build rockets and engines for next-generation radar-guided shipboard missiles that will be designed to defeat aircraft and missiles under terms of a $439.1 million order announced last week.
Officials of the U.S. Naval Sea Systems Command in Washington are asking the RTX Raytheon segment in Tucson, Ariz., for guided missile assemblies for the RIM-162 Evolved Seasparrow Missile (ESSM) Block 2, which uses an active radar seeker than can operate independently of the launch ship.
Missiles without ordnance
Missile assemblies are large rocket-type cruise missiles without their ordnance. Missiles are rocket-propelled weapons that are designed to deliver an explosive warhead with great accuracy at high speed.
The ESSM Block 2 shipboard missile first was deployed with the U.S. and allied navies in 2020. It is a ship self-defense missile with a dual-mode X-band radar seeker than can engage enemy planes and missiles at ranges beyond 25 miles. RIM stands for radar intercept missile.
Compared with its ESSM Block 1 predecessor, the ESSM Block 2 air-defense missile has increased maneuverability and other enhancements that enable the missile to defeat future threats to U.S. and allied navies operating in hostile environments, Raytheon officials say. The ESSM Block 2’s active seeker will support terminal engagement without the launch ship’s target illumination radars.
In addition to the U.S. Navy, the governments of Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Greece, The Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, and Turkey will operate ESSM Block 2 anti-air missile.
Semi-active homing
The ESSM shipboard air-defense munition is a medium-range, semi-active homing missile that makes flight corrections via radar and midcourse data uplinks. The missile provides reliable ship self-defense capability against agile, high-speed, low-altitude anti-ship cruise missiles, low velocity air threats like helicopters, and high-speed, maneuverable surface threats.
The missile is 12 feet long and has 10-inch-diameter control and rocket motor sections that tapper to an 8-inch-diameter guidance section with a radome-protected antenna for semi-active homing and a warhead. It has a high-thrust, solid-propellant rocket motor and tail control via a thrust vector controller.
The first production ESSM Block 1 was delivered in late 2002 and has been in full operational use in the U.S. since 2004.
Raytheon will do the work on this order in Tucson, Ariz.; Edinburgh and Eight Mile Plains, Australia; San Jose, Torrance, and Westlake Village, Calif.; Mississauga and Cambridge, Ontario; Ottobrunn, Germany; Nashua, N.H.; Raufoss, Norway; Andover, Mass.; Koropi Attica, Greece; Canton, N.Y.; Grenaa, Denmark; Aranjuez, Spain; Hengelo OV, the Netherlands; Lystrup, Denmark; Ankara, Turkey, Camden, Ark.; Milwaukie, Ore.; and other locations, and should be finished by June 2029.
For more information contact RTX Raytheon www.rtx.com/raytheon/what-we-do/sea/essm-missile, or Naval Sea Systems Command at www.navsea.navy.mil.
John Keller | Editor-in-Chief
John Keller is the Editor-in-Chief, Military & Aerospace Electronics Magazine--provides extensive coverage and analysis of enabling electronics and optoelectronic technologies in military, space and commercial aviation applications. John has been a member of the Military & Aerospace Electronics staff since 1989 and chief editor since 1995.
