In a Pacific first, Army’s new launcher fires a missile at a maritime target

This year’s Talisman Sabre exercise with Australia included several firsts, the deputy commander of U.S. Army Pacific told reporters Tuesday, chief among them the first time the service’s new mid-range missile launcher practiced shooting at a ship in the Western Hemisphere.

The Typhon launcher shot an SM-6 anti-ship missile at a target 166 kilometers away, Lt. Gen. JB Vowell said during an event with George Washington University’s Project for Media and National Security. The launcher was positioned at the Bradshaw training area several hundred miles from Darwin, Australia.

“We’ve shot many different maritime targets over the years, perfecting where we are now, but we’re still trying to get to a better form-factor solution, better capabilities,” Vowell said.

Soldiers also tested its sensors and command systems to be able to show their leaders how it all went down. 

“We were able to see, control and observe everything from here at Fort Shafter in Hawaii, at the forward command post, because of our updated digital command-and-control systems that are encrypted, which is a part of the innovation that we’re doing as well,” Vowell said.

It was the latest demonstration of a capability the Army has been tasked with building out for several years, to be able to defend land from encroaching ships, which means not only targeting based on the ship’s location but based on how high the waves are pushing it up and down. 

“So that capability to do that from land, which is hard to detect – it’s easier to see a ship at sea than it is a launcher platform in the jungles of Indonesia or the Philippines,” Vowell said.

Soldiers used the exercise to learn how to handle the SM-6 and load it into the Typhon, he added, but the Army is looking for a munition that isn’t quite as long as the SM-6’s 21-plus feet, perhaps one with a semi-autonomous feature.

“There’s potential with hypersonics that have a smaller form factor. There’s potential with a better GMLRS, the Guided Multiple Launch Rocket [System] that we have, out of HIMARS to hit maritime platforms as well,” Vowell said. “We’re working on that. So have another option within their capability, based upon what the Typhon is informing us.”