JLENS Defeats Anti-Ship Cruise Missile For First Time

choi

Press release: Raytheon Aerostat, SM-6 Missile Work Together to Protect Ships. Raytheon, Sept 21, 2012 (video, animation and photo galleries).
http://www.raytheon.com/newsroom/technology/rtn12_sm6/index.html
(JLENS stands for Joint Land Attack Cruise Missile Defense Elevated Netted Sensor System)

Note:
(a) The word Joint refers to use by more than one service of US armed services, such as both army and navy in this instance.
(b)
(A) JLENS is supposed to track multiple targets--not just "multiple speedboats" here, but multiple potentially threats--on land, at sea, in the air or a combination of them.
(B) Until this test, US navy defeats an anti-ship missile with a combination of various countermeasures.

anti-ship_missile
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-ship_missile
(section 4 Countermeasures)
(c) There is no page for JLENS in Wikipedia. It is new. Starting July 2009, US army, having revived the system, shipped them to Afghanistan and Iraq for testing.
(d) The aerostat was tethered to the land--it is not a blimp.
(e) Because the aerostat is placed high--10,000 feet (3.048 km)--Iraqi or Afghan insurgents could not shoot an aerostat down with small weapons. Naturally China, say, theoretically can with an missile shoot down an aerostat--I will see how US intend to protect JLENS.

(f) The caption of a photo in "SM-6 Photo Gallery" reads: "Launched from a US Navy ship, a Raytheon Standard Missile-6 leverages AMRAAM seeker technology to take out 'over-the-horizon' threats."

(A) For "over-the-horizon," see over-the-horizon radar
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Over-the-horizon_radar
(B) For SM-6, see RIM-174 Standard ERAM
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RIM-174_Standard_ERAM
(The RIM-174 Standard Extended Range Active Missile (ERAM), or Standard Missile 6 (SM-6) is a missile that has just gone into production for the United States Navy; The missile uses the airframe of the earlier SM-2ER Block IV (RIM-156A) missile, adding the active radar homing seeker from the AIM-120C AMRAAM in place of the semi-active seeker of the previous design; Table: In service 2011, Manufacturer Raytheon, Produced 2009 - present)
(C) Andreas Parsch, Current Designations of US Unmanned Military Aerospace Vehicles. Feb 26, 2011.
http://www.designation-systems.net/usmilav/missiles.html

Move from the last letter to the first of the 3-letter acronym:
(1) M stands for "missile" in the category of "Vehicle Type."
(2) I stands for "interception" in the category of "mission."
(3) A (for "Air") or R (for "Surface Ship") is in the category of "Launch Environment."

(g) The following explains in plain English what JLENS is capable of.

John Andrew Hamilton, Airborne Radar Prepped for Missile Defense Testing. US Army, Apr 30, 2012.
http://www.army.mil/article/78893/

Acronym:
(A) ATEC is US Army Test and Evaluation Command
www.atec.army.mil/
(B) WSMR is White Sands Missile Range.

(h) Introduction to JLENS, from the manufacturer.

Press release: Revolutionary Surveillance Capability Fills Gap in Early Warning Systems. Raytheon, Nov 9, 2011 (animation)
http://www.raytheon.com/newsroom ... a/news12/index.html
("JLENS consists of two tethered aerostats * * * One aerostat contains surveillance radar to detect and track potential threats; the other contains fire control radar that tracks and provides data to support an engagement.