Our North - SSE Policy Update Megathread

[Kirkhill]

So....

I have been banging drums about containerized missiles and arctic bases and uncrewed ships as launch platforms - all in terms of the defence of Canada.

And then there is this....

How The Navy's New Very Long-Range AIM-174 Missile Could Pierce China’s Anti-Access Bubble

The AIM-174 is a beast of an air-to-air weapon, but how could it actually be used to maximum effect in a Pacific fight?

www.twz.com

It kinds of breathes new life into something that Wayne Eyre and Anita Anand said at Trenton with respect to IAMD - a long range missile for the Hornets.

I was thinking something along the lines of the AMRAAM family but now.... the SM6 .... a true multi-purpose round.

Even an old F-18 makes a great hot-shot delivery truck to deliver rounds from warehouse to launch point. And we wouldn't have to leave Canadian airspace to bombard Spitzbergen.... And how far into the Pacific littoral can a missile launched from Shemya airspace reach?

The US Army's mid-range solution includes both the SM-6 and the Tomahawk,

US Army’s Mid-Range Capability makes its first deployment in the Philippines for Salaknib

In a historic first, the 1st Multi-Domain Task Force successfully deployed the Mid-Range Capability (MRC) missile system to Northern Luzon, Philippines, on April 11, 2024, as part of Exercise Salaknib

www.usarpac.army.mil

If the F18 can carry the Taurus (1400 kg) it can also carry the Tomahawk (1300 kg).

The AIM-174 version of the SM6 apparently weighs around 860 kg.

....

Back to the RCAF to defend Canada....

 

[Good2Golf]

AIM-164 doesn’t have the extra booster that makes an SM-3 a ballistic missile killer to 1000km engagement altitude, but it’s not bad. Not sure if the legacy (ie. our A and B models) Hornets have the same loadout for AIM-174s as the Super Hornets.

 

[Kirkhill]

AIM-164 doesn’t have the extra booster that makes an SM-3 a ballistic missile killer to 1000km engagement altitude, but it’s not bad. Not sure if the legacy (ie. our A and B models) Hornets have the same loadout for AIM-174s as the Super Hornets.

The original hardpoint ratings, and the use of the Taurus by some of the Euros (Swiss and Finns perhaps?) suggest to me the possibility with the SM6 .... but we also never exploited, to my knowledge, the Harpoon capability and I suspect that those wings are like my knees - creaking.

Still,

SM6 - launched from Mk 41 VLS or the Mk 70 PDS on board a ship, on shore, fixed or mobile platforms and from a bomb truck.

So a ship creates a bubble with a limited number of missiles for a short period of time.
An aircraft can create a bubble at short notice anywhere for a short period of time
A land based battery can store a large number of missiles at a given point to create a bubble for a long period of time.
A containerized battery can establish a new battery for a long period of time at short notice.

Still a role for the RRCA in SM6 and Tomahawk - and possibly something like the Valkyrie as a low cost bomb truck.

PS ...

The US Army Mid Range Capability has a range requirement much longer than the published range of the SM6. I believe the range is more in line with the Tomahawk and is somewhere around the 1500 km mark.

I can only assume that the difference is the difference between powered flight, necessary for aerial intercepts, and post-burnout ballistic flights that are sufficient against stationary and slow moving targets like ships.

If the bomb truck is engaging well beyond conventional engagement ranges then it can loft the SM6 and boost it on to a ballistic trajectory.

Hence reaching Spitzbergen from Alert.