3 ms·

The short-range destroyer doesn't make any sense because the radars for air defense aren't cheap. The US is building Constellation frigates as lower cost air de

The short-range destroyer doesn't make any sense because the radars for air defense aren't cheap. The US is building Constellation frigates as lower cost air defense. They will have medium-range SAMs because they have shorter VLS cells, and not the bigger long-range SAM and ABM that the destroyers have. I think they put on Aegis cause that is the only system available. There is short-range ESSM missiles that packs 4 per VLS cell, and they could fit in shorter cells. You could make a frigate with ESSM, a lot of countries have similar. But the US doesn't seem to have combat system that could do that and might have to buy it. ESSM is intended for self-defense, I don't know if it can defend fleet. Also, the size of missiles is directly related to the range because they are mostly rocket. The warhead doesn't make much difference to the cost.

cwillu 3y ago
https://www.navalgazing.net/ESSM https://www.navalgazing.net/ESSM says the range is estimated to be 50km, Block II no longer needs illumination from the firing ship, but may not be fully integrated into AEGIS such that it can take targeting data from other ships. “But despite its capabilities, ESSM still had the drawback of all previous versions of Sea Sparrow. It relied on semi-active guidance, requiring illumination from the firing ship. It did have an autopilot and uplink from the firing ship, allowing illumination only in the last moments of its flight, but this was still a potential problem when facing saturation attack. The obvious way to solve this was to fit the missile with an active seeker head, and discussions of doing so were happening as far back as 2002, but it wasn’t until relatively recently that serious work began on what is known as ESSM Block II. Block II kept the motor and fins, and replaced the forward 8″ section with a new 10″ guidance section, with a new dual-mode active/passive radar seeker. This removed the need for firing-ship illumination entirely, allowing Block II to be used against swarm attacks or targets that the firing ship couldn’t see, although reports don’t seem to indicate that it’s fully integrated into the Collective Engagement Capability (CEC) system.”

cwillu 3y ago

https://www.navalgazing.net/ESSM https://www.navalgazing.net/ESSM says the range is estimated to be 50km, Block II no longer needs illumination from the firing ship, but may not be fully integrated into AEGIS such that it can take targeting data from other ships. “But despite its capabilities, ESSM still had the drawback of all previous versions of Sea Sparrow. It relied on semi-active guidance, requiring illumination from the firing ship. It did have an autopilot and uplink from the firing ship, allowing illumination only in the last moments of its flight, but this was still a potential problem when facing saturation attack. The obvious way to solve this was to fit the missile with an active seeker head, and discussions of doing so were happening as far back as 2002, but it wasn’t until relatively recently that serious work began on what is known as ESSM Block II. Block II kept the motor and fins, and replaced the forward 8″ section with a new 10″ guidance section, with a new dual-mode active/passive radar seeker. This removed the need for firing-ship illumination entirely, allowing Block II to be used against swarm attacks or targets that the firing ship couldn’t see, although reports don’t seem to indicate that it’s fully integrated into the Collective Engagement Capability (CEC) system.”