DEFEND AND DETER

The air defence threat-and-response equation exists increasingly in integrated layers. AMR looks at two examples of how Western navies use missiles to defend against and deter the integrated air threat.

- Dr Lee Willett

The expanding levels of naval missile capabilities deployed in the maritime operating environment are both cause and effect of the increasing levels of naval operational focus on such capabilities. Indeed, such developments sit at the centre of increasing naval operational activity levels that are the atsea manifestation of the returning state-based rivalry in strategic theatres across the world.

The Asia-Pacific region was the first theatre to stage the return of state-based rivalry at sea. From around 2008, China pursued its ambition to build its regional presence at sea; various regional and extra-regional navies have since sought to respond. Today, different navies are operating national and multinational task groups across the region, as countries seek to develop presence and demonstrate power in areas of interest.

Task group operations are central to such developments, and in debates about defending such groups against missile attack. Western naval task groups, particularly those operating in the Asia-Pacific region, have for some time been focused on developing high-end surface-to-air (SAM) missile capabilities to deal with the perceived anti-ship ballistic missile (ASBM) threat. Increasingly in recent years, the broad anti-ship missile (ASM) threat is coming in the form of cruise missiles (ASCMs). Such missiles can be air-, ship-, or submarine-based. Western navies are focused on this threat, including the uncertainty over whether an incoming ASCM is conventional or nuclear. Adversaries’ surface ships or submarines are a primary area of focus for Western navies who, in return, are developing their own ASCM capabilities, particularly to deter surface ship-based ASCM threats.

PLAN capabilities