DAS For Missile Defense

Northrop Grumman recently demonstrated a sensor for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter that could be used to detect boosting ballistic missiles, according to a company statement released today.

The AN/AAQ-37 Electro-Optical Distributed Aperture System (DAS) "successfully detected and tracked a two-stage rocket launch at a distance exceeding 800 miles during a routine flight test conducted aboard the company's BAC 1-11 test bed aircraft," the statement reads. Further:

"The DAS could fill critical capability gaps in the area of ballistic missile defense (BMD)," said Dave Bouchard, program director for F-35 sensors at Northrop Grumman. "We have only scratched the surface on the number of functions the F-35's DAS is capable of providing. With DAS, we've combined instantaneous 360-degree spherical coverage, high frame refresh rates, high resolution, high sensitivity powerful processors and advanced algorithms into a single system. The number of possibilities is endless."

An operational DAS system is comprised of multiple DAS sensors whose images are fused together to create one seamless picture. DAS successfully detected and tracked the rocket during a nine minute, two-stage, flight period from horizon break until final burnout through multiple sensor fields of regard. Unlike other sensors, DAS picks up targets without assistance from an external cue. Because DAS is passive, an operator does not have to point the sensor in the direction of a target to gain a track.

"The DAS software architecture already includes missile detection and tracking algorithms that can be applied to the BMD mission," Bouchard added. "The results of the flight test were extraordinary. We found that the data gathered during this flight validated our performance predictions. In fact, we knew we could have seen the rocket at a longer distance."

The AN/AAQ-37 DAS is a high resolution omni-directional infrared sensor system that provides advanced spherical situational awareness capability, including missile and aircraft detection, track and warning capabilities for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. DAS also gives a pilot 360 degree spherical day/night vision, with the capability of seeing through the floor of the aircraft. Northrop Grumman is now exploring how the existing DAS technology could assist in several additional mission areas, including Ballistic Missile Defense and irregular warfare operations.

Using fighter aircraft as missile defense platforms is a concept that has been gaining traction in recent years.

Last year, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz called for his service to partner with the Missile Defense Agency to study the possibility of using fighter jets, bombers and drones to intercept intercontinental ballistic missiles. As Inside Missile Defense reported in July:

If eventually adopted, the concept could give the service a more prominent seat at the table in the missile defense world, which is dominated by Army and Navy interceptors. The Air Force currently tracks and provides targeting data for those systems through Defense Support Program satellites.

Right now, the Air Force does not have a "shooter" in the missile defense fight. It plans to use the Airborne Laser Boeing 747 for this mission; however, Defense Secretary Robert Gates has recommended keeping the effort in a research-and-development status due to its extremely high price tag and what Gates calls a questionable operational concept.

To that end, the Air Force explored the Air-Launched Hit-to-Kill concept in Unified Engagement 2008. The wargame concluded that "several approaches may be operationally suitable for employment from Air Force fighters or other aircraft," Schwartz wrote in a June 2 memo to MDA Director Lt. Gen. Patrick O'Reilly.

The concept proposes using modified Terminal High Altitude Air Defense (THAAD) missiles or Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missiles (AMRAAM) weapons to shoot down different types of intercontinental ballistic missiles.

The THAAD-based system would be "shorter than a 600 gallon external fuel tank and weigh approximately 1,600 pounds," according to an April 24 white paper included with the memo. The document is marked "for official use only." The system could be carried externally on F-15 and F-16 fighters. Follow-on development of this "upper-tier capability" would include an F-22A and F-35 internally carried interceptor system.

The AMRAAM-based Net Centric Airborne Defense Element (NCADE) "would provide lower tier or endo-atmospheric intercept capability," according to the document.

The use of fighter aircraft "increases the range of equivalent surface-based missiles 3 to 6 times," the document states.