RTX, formerly known as Raytheon, is progressing with upgrades on two naval self-defense missiles amid a renewed focus on cost-effectiveness and reliability due to threats faced in the Red Sea and Indo-Pacific.
Naval News had the opportunity to talk with the U.S. Navy’s premier supplier of air defense missiles during the lead-up to Sea Air Space 2024 on their Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile (ESSM) Block 2 and Rolling Airframe Missile (RAM) 2B programs. Compared to the company’s other surface-to-air missiles, such as the Standard Missile (SM) series, ESSM and RAM are self-defense missiles dedicated to the protection of their host ship from anti-ship threats. These latest iterations of the missiles bring increased capability in response to new anti-ship missile threats being deployed by American adversaries, such as Russia, Iran, and China.
Alongside a new blast-fragmentation warhead, one of ESSM Block 2’s most crucial upgrades is the improvement of Block 1’s guidance section, which was described by budgetary documents as being “largely obsolete.” This new variant hosts a dual-mode Active/Semi-Active X-Band seeker, which reportedly leverages technology employed on RTX’s SM-6, to reduce the use of illuminators for guidance and to better address enemy electronic countermeasures and stream raid threats. Threats expected to be countered by these upgrades include “advanced ASCMs, Low Velocity Air Targets, surface, and asymmetrical,” according to budgetary documents.
ESSM Block 2’s versatility and role have slated it to be deployed on virtually any Navy vessel. Whether through its deployment via the Mk.41 Vertical Launching System on surface combatants or the Mk.29 trainable launcher on amphibious assault ships and aircraft carriers, the self-defense missile forms the core of inner air defense capabilities for the majority of American and NATO warships.
Amid recent events in the Red Sea, Naval News inquired ESSM program director Chris Driscoll as to why RTX’s self-defense missile has not seen much press in the Red Sea, specifically regarding USS Gravely’s (DDG 97) Phalanx engagement last fall as well as other incidents involving potential threats to U.S. warships.
According to Driscoll, while RTX has not heard much about the incident from the Navy he heard that “there was some ESSM deployment,” but the ship “had some combat system thing.” When asked for further clarification on what the issue was, Driscoll could not provide further comment. It should be noted that the Danish frigate Iver Huitfeldt, which also uses ESSM and SM-2, recently suffered combat system failures during a deployment to the Red Sea while defensively engaging a Houthi drone attack.
While ESSM’s first combat deployment was in the Red Sea over eight years ago, with a single missile launched in conjunction with two SM-2s to down a Houthi C-802 anti-ship cruise missile fired at USS Mason (DDG 87), little on the composition of defensive salvos in response to Houthi non-ballistic threats such as drones and cruise missiles has been shared publicly during the ongoing Red Sea crisis.
With the nature of ESSM’s self-protection mission, Driscoll explained that the missile’s sparse deployment in the Red Sea is due to the large area air defense mission required to protect merchant shipping.
“What you’re really seeing is our Navy is engaging to protect the ships that are not around them. And in order to do that broader area defense they are using Standard Missile 2, which is an amazing capability that has been proven very well in the Red Sea,” said Driscoll.
Driscoll further acknowledged that the Navy may need to “engage a little differently” in the Red Sea due to the cost-effectiveness of the current interceptions, which are seeing Houthi drones and missiles being downed by much more expensive SM series missiles.
“As our tactics evolve we’re gonna have to decide if we’re going to engage a little differently so that ESSM and some of the other systems become a viable alternate engagement strategy. When you just step back and look at it, the U.S. Navy is engaging in the safest way they can and I think that’s also a good indicator of the technology that we’ve fielded as a nation.”
“I still think ESSM Block 1 is a viable tactic in the Red Sea, it just hasn’t yet been part of our engagement tactics,” Driscoll concluded.
RTX further highlighted another self-defense missile, RAM 2B, In a separate interview with RAM program director Roger Bissmeyer. While Bissmeyer briefly highlighted the system as a “phenomenal capability still being used in the Red Sea” by both U.S. warships and other users, Naval News was unable to acquire further specification on what used entailed and if the system has been deployed during the ongoing crisis.
The RTX representative further highlighted that their development of what threats RAM can counter extends to areas outside the Red Sea, citing the recent focus of the U.S. to the Indo-Pacific. “And we look at clearly that the U.S. has pivoted to a near-peer in Asia and that so that’s a different threat set too. It’s not just focusing on the Red Sea. It’s really challenging place where the Navy is in where they’ve got to make sure they’re ready for whatever comes,” said Bissmeyer.
Like ESSM, RAM is a missile meant to defend its host warship. The 2B variant builds upon previous variants by improving the missile’s control and guidance section. Bissmeyer highlighted that these improvements, which introduce the ability for the missiles to communicate with each other, increase radar discrimination, and extend detection range on the seeker, allow RAM 2B to handle complex anti-ship missile attacks.
However, Bissmeyer did highlight the inability of RAM to protect other ships due to its nature as a self-defense missile and RTX’s ongoing efforts to change that.
“When you look at where the Navy is going to need to go, and where they’re operating now as we see in the Red Sea, they need to protect other things. And so we have been working on for some time, both the Navy and Raytheon, approaches and enhancements to the launcher, the missile, and to the CONOPS (concept of operations) that will allow us to better do that. I can absolutely affirm that.”
