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Home Front: Tech
Affordable Moving Surface Target Engagement
2004-11-22
The U.S. Air Force is conducting naval tests of its AMSTE (Affordable Moving Surface Target Engagement) system. This is an attempt to use airborne radar to continuously track a moving surface target, then drop a JDAM that can have it's target location continuously updated by radio, so that the JDAM will be able to hit and destroy the moving target. After three years of effort, the air force got this to work against a ground target last year. The JDAM went off within three meters of the moving truck it was aiming at. A 2,000 pound bomb was more than enough to take out a truck at that distance. Even a 500 pound JDAM would have worked. This month, tests are being conducted against moving ships. The air force is using its E-8 JSTARS aircraft, which carries a powerful radar that tracks moving objects on the surface (land or water). These tests are also meant to show the air force will be capable of quickly going after ships engaged in terrorist activities. The air force can get bomber and recon aircraft to any point on the planet within 24 hours, which is quicker than the navy can get a ship to some out of the way places.
The Navy will not be happy with this, the Air Force encrouching on it's turf.
Compared to a truck that might be ten meters long and 1.5 meters wide, and traveling at 100 kilometers an hour, a small merchant ship would measure 150 meters long and 20 wide, and be traveling at 30-40 kilometers an hour. The AMSTE system uses software that tracks the target and predicts where it will be in the next minute or so. That's the location AMSTE sends to the JDAM, via the aircraft that dropped it. A JDAM, dropped at 20,000 feet, ten kilometers from the target, takes about five minutes to reach the ground. The bombers fire control software lets the pilot know when the aircraft is close enough to the moving target for the bomb to reach the target no matter which direction it goes. AMSTE is basically a system of software programs that link different aircraft (the one spotting the target and the one dropping the bomb), and insure that the JDAM keeps getting accurate target updates until the last minute (or seconds, actually).

In the next few years, all the services will be getting radios that can communicate with each other, using digital data. This would make it possible for a navy P-3 maritime search aircraft to pass location data, for a ship below, to an air force bomber, that could then drop a JDAM to hit the moving ship. But the big breakthrough is being able to regularly hit moving targets with bombs, day or night and in any weather.
Posted by:Steve

#13  Russian military editors are expressing opinions that Russian aircraft carriers should remain small but capable of multi-purpose missions, to include attacks against American surface ships, air defense, and submarines via UAV/UV's. I believe the latter is what Putin really meant by Russia dev weapons that no other nations will have. The Russians know America and its USDOD will be ready for any trad ICBM [fixed silo-mobile-rail], Heavy Bomber, or SSBN/FBM or SurfWar missle and CM attack, hypersonic or not, MIRVed/MRVed or not. This leaves open dedicated, aymmetric Underwater Warfare such that Subs or dedicated surface ships can launch "smart" or "brilliant" missles or UV's capable of remote- or independent UNDERWATER/SUBSURFACE
maneuver and evasion, and won't "pop-up" above-water until the very last moments. ALso, a while back the Russians and Euros were talking about dev underwater, unmanned, commidity tranports capable of being attached andor being remotely controlled by a mother sub [or surface ship], akin to an UW merchant fleet - REPLACE OIL, MINERALS, AND WHEAT WITH HI-TECH MISSLES, CM's, AND ARMED UV's, AND WHAT ONE HAS IS AN UNDERWATER, OFFENSIVE/DEFENSIVE, HIGHLY MOBILE MISSLE BASE/STATION THAT DOESN'T HAVE TO FIRE ITS ASSETS UNTIL AFTER IT PENETRATES GMD AND IS NEAR THE US MAINLAND - notsomuch Long-Range attack, but "near abroad" or poximity attack, as the USA must still obey International Treatises and Laws of the Sea. The greatest reason for China to have KILO-class subs and the like is if it intends to extend it naval and geopol mil reach beyond the littorals of East Asia.
Posted by: JosephMendiola   2004-11-22 10:16:54 PM  

#12  At the rate weapons are being invented/improved, the Air Force is going to end up almost solely as attack support for the Army, Navy and Marines. We'd better ramp up the Space program again, to give the Top Gun types something exciting to do ;-)
Posted by: trailing wife   2004-11-22 8:15:04 PM  

#11  That's the problem Mr. Patriot, don't you agree Brazil should have won Miss Congeniality in the last war? You know, WW Deuce.
Posted by: Whipper-In Barbie   2004-11-22 6:59:12 PM  

#10  It's simply not fair.
Of COURSE it's not fair! That's why we can live our peaceful lives here in the States, without the threat of military encroachment, and why Europe has been able to live pretty darned well under the shield of US military might. We aren't fair - we play to win. There is no prize for second place in a war.
Posted by: Old Patriot   2004-11-22 6:18:21 PM  

#9  It's simply not fair.
Posted by: Whipper-In Barbie   2004-11-22 5:41:23 PM  

#8  I love that name, "Affordable Moving Surface Target Engagement." Sounds like the copy from an infomercial:

"Now, engaging surface targets is surprisingly affordable! . . . "
Posted by: Mike   2004-11-22 2:47:44 PM  

#7  Okay, of Michael Moore skydiving, lol! You're right, about the skydiver's Terminal Velocity, when trying to achieve max speed is 120-125 MPH, IIRC. When not trying to do so, the "standard" position, I believe it is in the 80-90 MPH range. Any hardcore skydivers out there? I've only had 3 static jumps - no freefall - and those were 25 yrs ago, lol!
Posted by: .com   2004-11-22 1:01:14 PM  

#6  Heck, that's slow even for a skydiver; isn't the terminal velocity for a plummetting human about 125 mph or so?

Just an "enginer's guesstimate", but I would think a bomb of this sort would normally impact at around 400 to 500 mph; and in the case given, would have a time in flight of about 60 seconds.
Posted by: Dave D.   2004-11-22 12:49:40 PM  

#5  Dave - It looks like someone, a lazy someone, "cheated" and used the standard Terminal Velocity - of a skydiver, not a bomb. Here's a good page for the actual math involved...
Posted by: .com   2004-11-22 12:23:18 PM  

#4  Have they tested this on slow moving targets? I'm thinking Michael Moore in a brisk waddle would be a good test.
Posted by: Justrand   2004-11-22 11:15:16 AM  

#3  This is cool, but I would have hoped that they (the AF and Navy both) were able to hit a moving ship before this. Their granddaddy's did it with an ironsight, afterall. ;)
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats   2004-11-22 11:14:50 AM  

#2  More math: "A JDAM, dropped at 20,000 feet, ten kilometers from the target, takes about five minutes to reach the ground." That's about 36,000 feet total distance in 300 seconds, or an average speed of 120 feet per second-- barely 80 miles per hour. Minor nit, I know, but someone's math is WAAAAY off here.
Posted by: Dave D.   2004-11-22 11:02:03 AM  

#1  Math. A B-52 bomber drops 51- 500lb bombs. If each bomb is independently and effectively targeted on a "pursuit curve", a single plane can wipe out every vehicle in a moving armored battallion simultaneously. Ow.
Posted by: Anonymoose   2004-11-22 10:49:54 AM  

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