i

DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMYU.S. ARMY SPACE AND MISSILE DEFENSE COMMAND

8 April 1998

For four decades the Army has led our Nation in space andmissile defense. Today, the U.S. Army Space and MissileDefense Command, the recipient of this legacy, is preparingto lead Army efforts in joint space and missile defense intothe 21st Century.

To ensure our Nation is prepared to meet the technologicalchallenges posed by the evolving land attack cruise missilethreat, the command is developing the Joint Land AttackCruise Missile Defense Elevated Netted Sensor System(JLENS).

This pamphlet discusses today’s capability to defeat threatland attack cruise missiles; explores the complexity of theproblem; describes how JLENS is a key part of the jointservice solution for land attack cruise missile defense; andhighlights both our implementation strategy and thechallenges ahead.

EDWARD G. ANDERSON IIILieutenant General, USACommanding

Contents

Proliferation Of Threat Missiles .......................... 1

Today�s Capabilities Against LandAttack Cruise Missiles ........................................ 3

Joint Land Attack Cruise MissileDefense Is Hard To Accomplish .......................... 4

Improving Joint Land AttackCruise Missile Defense ........................................ 5

Achieving The Joint Solution ............................... 6

Implementation ................................................ 11

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Proliferation Of Threat Missiles

Worldwide Theater Ballistic Missile Threat

The rapid proliferation of theater ballistic missilescontinues throughout many industrialized and third worldcountries. Missile technology ranges from the older

SCUD-type class of missiles to themodern, extremely accurate M-9 andM-11 missiles. All serve as ideal deliverysystems for weapons of mass destructionand many are capable of dispensingunitary and submunition warheads.

World Wide Cruise Missile Threat

Cruise missiles are developing into theweapon of choice for both western andthird world countries. At least 72

countries currently have cruise missiles in their arsenals.Additionally, 19 countries are producing cruise missilesand 12 are exporting them.

Intelligence sources estimate these missiles are alsoproliferating rapidly. For example, France has exportedEXOCET missiles to over 17 countries and the FrenchAPACHE cruise missile is anticipated to be the threat

cruise missile weapon of choice by the year2000. Iran currently possessesSILKWORM missiles, and the UnitedStates has sold HARPOON missiles tomore than 12 third world countries.

These cruise missiles can be delivered byland, sea or air, and are more accurate and

mobile than tactical ballistic missiles — but with the sameweapons of mass destruction payloads available.

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Cruise Missiles Are A Challenging Threat

Cruise missiles offer the enemy numerous employmentoptions. They typically fly a low altitude, long rangeflight pattern making them difficult to detect until theyare at extremely close ranges. Additionally, their lowaltitude flight makes them very difficult to discriminatefrom the surrounding groundclutter. Their highly accuratecommand and control guidancepackages make both defendedassets and personnel forceconcentrations extremelyvulnerable.

Finally, cruise missiles areattractive weapons because theyare relatively inexpensive topurchase. For example, for $50million dollars an adversarycould purchase:

1 or 2 advanced tacticalfighters, or

4 attack helicopters, or

10 utility helicopters, or

15 theater ballistic missiles with3 tactical launcher platforms, or

100 off-the-shelf ready to firecruise missiles, each potentiallycarrying a weapon of massdestruction warhead.

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ALTITUDE

Low Altitude,360O Ingress,

Clutter

SIZE

Small Signature ReducesDetection/EngagementRange Opportunities

ACCURACYFixed SitesAnd Force

ConcentrationsVulnerable

ASSEMBLYAREA

PAYLOADS

Subminitions, Bulk,Smart Munitions

CONVENTIONAL CHEMICAL

BIOLOGICALNUCLEAR

RANGE20-2000(+)Mile Range

VARIABLE LAUNCH

Launch Options

AIR

LAND SEA

Today�s Capabilities Against LandAttack Cruise Missiles

Our current joint services capability to defeat land attackcruise missiles is limited. This capability diminishes asthe land attack cruise missile threat moves inland, sincethe theater commander loses assistance from naval shipspositioned along coastal areas. Additionally, the UnitedStates Air Force, while unquestionably the best air forcein the world against fixed-wing aerial threats, possessesa limited capability against low-flying land attack

cruise missiles.Consequently, the U.S.Army Patriot air defensemissile system currentlyserves as the primary airdefense system tasked withdefeating land attack cruisemissiles. Patriot, however,has other missions. Amongthem is tactical ballisticmissile defense, which inthe aftermath of the GulfWar, has evolved into itsprimary mission. WhenPatriot is emplaced fortactical ballistic missile

defense of assets within its defended area, it cannotprovide adequate protection against low-flying threatssuch as land attack cruise missiles.

The end result is land attack cruise missiles can attackwith little-to-no warning leaving all friendly elementssusceptible to this threat. If the enemy chooses to employweapons of mass destruction, such as biological,chemical, or nuclear warheads, the results could bedisastrous.

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Tactical BallisticMissile DefenseDefended Area

Joint Land Attack Cruise MissileDefense Is Hard To Accomplish

Why LACMD is Hard

As we modernize ourexisting systems andcapabilities, the mostpressing technical issue isthe need to detect andtrack land attack cruisemissiles at the maximum rangeof our joint service weapon systems. Unfortunately,the detection of small targets at long ranges isextremely difficult. For example, a threat missileapproaching 50 meters above the surface cannot bedetected by a surface based sensor until it is within37 kilometers of the detecting sensor because of thecurvature of the earth.

The Problem with Land Attack Cruise Missiles

The cruise missile’s decreasingelectronic signature and itsability to attack from any angleforces land-based weaponsystems to collocate with theassets they are defending inorder to provide 360degree defense protection.Consequently, land-basedweapons are usually limited tovery short range ‘pop-up’engagements.

Masked byEarth Curvature

EarliestDetection

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Patriot Kinematic Range

Patriot Missile EngagementArea Due To Terrain

RCSDependent

Patriot MissileEngagement Capability

PATRIOT

AEGIS

Friendly Forces Enemy Forces

CM

CM

Target Line of SightAltitude Range (Km)20,000 ft 330

10,000 ft 240

5,000 ft 170

200 m 67

100 m 50

50 m 37C

Ms

Air

craft

Improving Joint LandAttack Cruise Missile Defense

Elevated Sensors

As a result of this evolving threat, the Congress, OSD, the JointStaff and BMDO believe only a joint service solution will provideadequate force protection for our military personnel.

In recognition of this need the Joint Staff, with Congressionalapproval, created the Joint Theater Air and Missile DefenseOrganization (JTAMDO) in March 1996. One of its missions isto develop effective concepts for land attack cruise missile

defense.

Since the threat will likely fly at lowaltitudes to avoid detection by surface-based weapon systems, one possiblesolution is to elevate the sensors andintegrate them with surface-basedweapon systems. Elevation of the sensorsaffords the warfighter the ability to look

down at the battlefield at extended ranges unhampered by terrainmasking or earth curvature. Additionally, the information providedby elevated sensors will be distributed simultaneously to all thejoint theater air and missile defense weapons on the battlefield.This would provide a single integrated air picture for thewarfighters negating the advantages associated with low altitudeflight approach.

Indeed the JTAMDO operational vision for 2010 prescribes theuse of elevated surveillance and precision tracking sensors, andthe combination of all surface and air based sensor data into asingle integrated air picture. This would allow over-the-horizon(OTH) detection, classification, identification tracking andengagement of threat land attack cruise missiles. Achieving anelevated fire control quality sensor may also make it possible toconduct air directed missile engagements. This new capabilityaffords each weapon system in the joint family of theater air andmissile defense systems the opportunity to achieve intercepts atthe maximum effective kinematic range of its interceptors. This

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Friendly Forces Enemy Forces

JLENS

PATRIOT

AEGIS

CM

CM

Fixed Wing

ADSAMADSAM

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capability does not exist today because of sensor line-of-sightconstraints created by terrain masking and curvature of the earth.

JLENS is also a critical element of the U.S. Navy’s emerging landattack cruise missile architecture. Specifically, JLENS will enablethe U.S. Navy to achieve over land cruise missile defense in the littoralareas by providing surveillance, combat identification and precisiontracking required for Standard Missile Block II engagements.

Achieving The Joint Solution

The Office of the Secretary of Defense and the Joint Staff selectedJLENS as a cost effective technology solution against land attackcruise missiles and directed the Army to function as the lead servicefor JLENS development. JLENS will be positioned by the commanderand dedicated to the weapon systems under his command. JLENS’long missiond u r a t i o ncapability willprovide theextended sensorrange and trackquality requiredfor ground-based systemsto engage atm a x i m u mranges andi n t e r c e p tincoming cruisemissiles at thefirst possible intercept opportunity, even over enemy territory.

JLENS will complement fixed-wing sensor system capabilities andserve as a key member of a joint service theater air defense architecturewhich capitalizes upon the synergism delivered by the integrated useof these systems.

= Best

= Good

Fixed Wing JLENS COMBINATION

Deployability

Extended Time

on Station

Combat

Survivability

Weatherability

Life Cycle Cost

System

Affordability

◗◗◗◗◗

◗◗◗◗◗

◗◗◗◗◗

◗◗◗◗◗

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System Parameters

JLENS will operate at altitudes between 10,000 and15,000 feet; be capable of detecting long range, terrainmasked targets; and provide an effective fire controlsolution for joint theater air and missile defense weaponsystems. Additionally, it can operate from sites on bothland or sea, and is tactically relocatable. Compare thesecapabilities against the performance of our current sensorsystems and the value added of JLENS is readilyapparent.

To maximize the JLENS contribution to land attack cruisemissile defense, Cooperative Engagement Capability(CEC), initially developed by the U.S. Navy is beingincorporated into the JLENS systems design. JLENSwith CEC offers the commander a significant newcapability in air defense operations by distributing sensorand weapon data from existing systems in a significantlydifferent manner. This new capability offers dramaticbenefits in track accuracy, continuity, and consistency oftarget identification; provides an identical picture to allCEC equipped units; increases battlespace, reducesreaction time, and extends engagement ranges throughcooperative engagements. The Army, Navy and Air Forceare working together in the development andimplementation of this aspect of the JLENS program.

Characteristics

Functions Capabilities

Surveillance Range Up to 320 Km

Fire Control Range Up to 250 Km

Combat Identification Yes

Altitude Up to 15,000 ft

Battle Management and BM/C4I JTIDS and CEC Capability

Basing Land or Sea

Mobility Fixed and Tactically Relocatable Sites

JLENS Is All Weather

Weather is a factor for any airborne system. JLENS,however, is being designed to remain aloft and operatein the full spectrum of militarily significant aviationweather. To highlight the impact of weather upon anaerial platform let us consider two very differentclimatic areas of the world, Kuwait and Korea. Weatherconditions in Kuwait are normally stable, hot and dry.Weather conditions in the Republic of South Korea arefrequently changing, and widely divergent intemperature extremes. Thus, expected performancefor airborne systems varies significantly between thesetwo areas.

An older generation JLENS platform (Aerostat) has beenoperating in Kuwait for several years, and has consistentlymaintained an operational availability rate averaging 90%.However, recently completed studies indicate the sameolder generation Aerostat based platform would notperform as well in the Republic of South Korea becauseof expected adverse weather conditions. To mitigate thesedifferences the JLENS program is incorporating state ofthe art sensing and predicting instrumentation into all futuredesign developments. These instruments include on-boardcameras, ice accretion sensor and de-icing equipment,lightning prediction and detection equipment, a three axisanemometer, and a wind profiler sensor capability radar.These modifications are expected to increase the platform’sperformance rate by at least 20%, resulting in 90%operational availability rates on a world-wide basis.

JLENS Is Survivable

To ensure JLENS can survive in stressing combatenvironments, initial engineering analyses have beencompleted to address this issue. These studies andanalyses have evaluated JLENS against the full rangeof enemy air and ground threats, both against theairborne platform and the ground station.

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The studiesconcluded thatJ L E N Ssurvivability isequal with allother sensorson the battle-field. Forexample, allsensors aresusceptible toenemy jammingefforts, andJLENS, like

any other sensor, could be negatively affected by terroristactivities if physical security were not adequately maintained.However, use of appropriate survivability measures, suchas attainment of U.S. air superiority, deployment with Patriotand THAAD, employment with friendly elements, andexecution of planned system improvements, will ensureJLENS achieves high survivability rates.

JLENS Increases Battlespace

As previously mentioned, surface-based joint air defensesensors currently experience line-of-sight problems due toterrain masking, which in turn significantly reduces theeffective battlespace. When the surface-based sensors areoptimized for defense against tactical ballistic missiles, whichis the current common practice, the impact iseven more dramatic. For example, a Patriot airdefense sensor emplaced for tactical ballistic missile defensehas a limited ability to see and engage a target approachingat an elevation of 100 meters above ground level. However,that same Patriot sensor when provided JLENS sensorsurveillance and fire control information, is able to increaseits effective battlespace by over 700 percent. The result is asignificantly reduced risk for our deployed personnel andequipment, and allies and coalition partners.

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Weapon

Target

PreliminaryAssessment

Other

IR M

issi

le

RF M

issi

le (

D)

RF M

issi

le (

ND

)

Sm

art

Bom

b/M

sl

IR,

TV

, Lase

r

Gun

Iron B

om

b

Sm

art

Bom

b/M

sl

IR,

TV

, Lase

r

Gun

Arm

Jam

mer

SA

M (

HIM

AD

)

TBM

Manpads

Dir

ect

/Indir

ect

Fir

e

DEW

Air Delivered SurfaceDelivered

SOFTerrorists

Air Platform Ground Radar A G A G R

** * *

Assessment With Survivability Measures

Very Low or Negligible

Low Risk

Air Platform

Ground

Radar

* Further Analysis or

Testing Required

A=

G=

R=

The Joint Chiefs of Staff (J8) Land Attack Cruise MissileDefense Study, and the Defense Science Board’s TaskForce on Land Attack Cruise Missile Defense bothconfirm that JLENS provides the commander with:

• Achievement of a singleintegrated air pictureshared by all theater airand missile defenseassets;• Increased battlespace;• Improved situationalawareness;• Improved combatidentification;• Round the clocksurveillance andtracking at significantlyreduced operating costs.

JLENS OffersOver-The-HorizonCapabilities

An additional benefit ofJLENS is its ability tofacilitate extended rangecommunications; detect both friendly and enemy groundmoving targets; and otherwise assist in deep attackoperations. JLENS will report this critical informationto command and control centers such as the Army’s Airand Missile Defense Command and the Joint Force AirComponent Commander’s Air Operation Center (AOC).

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Weapon FlyoutLimit vs. 100m Alt.

TargetLine of Sight vs.100 Alt. Target

Patriot Capability Without JLENS

Weapon FlyoutLimit vs. 100m Alt.

Target

JLENS at12,000ft

Patriot Capability With JLENS

Implementation

Current schedules envision the initial JLENS prototypebeginning development and testing in the year 2000, with aninitial ‘ready to go to war’ capability by 2002. JLENS fullcapability design will be completed by the year 2005.

We Must Do This

The Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and CentralIntelligence Agency (CIA) believe the cruise missile threatis real, sophisticated, evolving, and dangerous. JLENS willmeet this expected 2010 threat.

Our current joint land attack cruise missile defense capabilityis limited. JLENS, in conjunction with planned joint servicesfixed wing sensor platforms, offers the best solution toeffective land attack cruise missile defense.

JLENS is the only joint system currently being designedspecifically against the growing land attack cruise missilethreat. JLENS extends the battle space against thesedangerous threat missiles.

JLENS is key to force protection on tomorrow’s jointbattlefield, not only for our forces and equipment but for ourallies and coalition partners as well.

Our Challenge

There are some challenges ahead, balancing progressiveinnovation with affordable budgetary requirements,orchestrating broad-based joint service efforts, anddeveloping superior system engineering programs whichensure JLENS meets the full spectrum of warfightingrequirements. There is a lot to do, but it can and must bedone. JLENS success is critical to achieving defense againstland attack cruise missiles.

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�I�ve spent most of my career wonderingwhat was on the other side of the hill.�

Duke of Wellington

U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense CommandPublic Affairs Office

Web Site: www.smdc.army.mil

1941 Jefferson Davis Highway, Suite 900Arlington, VA 22202Commercial (703) 607-1938DSN 327-1938Fax (703) 607-1491

P.O. Box 1500Huntsville, AL 35807-3801Commercial (205) 955-3887

DSN 645-3887Fax (205) 955-1214

U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense CommandPublic Affairs Office

Web Site: www.smdc.army.mil

1941 Jefferson Davis Highway, Suite 900Arlington, VA 22202Commercial (703) 607-1938DSN 327-1938Fax (703) 607-1491

P.O. Box 1500Huntsville, AL 35807-3801Commercial (205) 955-3887

DSN 645-3887Fax (205) 955-1214