LCS anti-swarm missile testing

The Navy has conducted its first test of a short-range missile system designed to protect Littoral Combat Ships against swarming threats, according to the Naval Sea Systems Command. The Navy conducted late February tests off the Virginia coast using the Surface-to-Surface Missile Module (SSMM), aboard the Freedom-class LCS-7, USS Detroit, by firing multiple AGM-114L Longbow Hellfire missiles. The test marked the first launch of a missile from the SSMM and LCS. It was also a first vertical missile launch from an LCS as part of the ships’ surface warfare (SW) mission package. The missiles work with a pair of 30mm Bushmaster cannons and the ship’s main 76mm deck gun for the anti-swarm boat mission. “This was another positive step forward in fielding of the next increment (for SW package),” Capt. Ted Zobel, mission modules program manager said. SSMM is a “critical piece” of that SW mission package. The swarm boat threat has been overshadowed by the Navy’s desire to arm both variants with an over-the-horizon anti-ship missile for LCS’s planned frigate follow-on design. The SW mission package will begin testing on USS Milwaukee (LCS-5) later in 2017 and will have an initial operational capability in 2018. (Source: US Naval Institute News 03/07/17) Gulf Coast Note: The second LCS variant class, Independence, is built by Austal USA Shipyard in Mobile, Ala.