Lockheed Martin wants containerized missile launchers to enhance a new overarching battle management architecture intended to help fill gaps in Australia’s air and missile defenses. Containerized launchers might also offer Australia’s armed forces new ways to engage targets on land and at sea, as well as in the air.
Edward Dobeck, director of Launching Systems at Lockheed Martin, talked about his company’s work with the Australian Defense Force and what else it is doing relating to containerized launchers in an interview with TWZ‘s Howard Altman from the floor of the Navy League’s Sea Air Space 2025 exhibition last week.
“So, we’ve been having a lot of good conversations with different countries in Europe and Asia about their need to provide launchers that are distributed,” Dobeck said. “One of the most immediate [examples] is part of the Australia AIR6500 program. So we’ve been talking and giving them estimates specifically for containerized launching solutions as part of that.”
Last year, Lockheed Martin received a contract valued at $500 million Australian dollars (roughly $312 million U.S. dollars, at the present rate of exchange) to lead work on a new Joint Air Battle Management System as part of the first phase of the AIR6500 program. “This system will provide [the Australian Department of] Defence with an advanced integrated air and missile defence capability, using next-gen technologies, to combat high-speed threats,” according to a press release put out in April 2024.
No explicit mention was made of new launchers potentially being part of the AIR6500 plan at that time. AIR6500 is eventually expected to include a layered array of sensor and interceptor capabilities, as well as the command and control architecture linking it all together.
The Australian Department of Defense had also released a major strategic review in 2023 that called for accelerating the acquisition of “medium-range advanced and high-speed missile defence capabilities” and said that “in-service, off-the-shelf options must be explored.”
Australia’s present air defense capabilities are currently limited to Swedish-designed RBS 70 short-range surface-to-air missiles, which can be employed from shoulder-fired and pedestal launchers, and the country’s trio of Hobart class anti-air warfare-focused destroyers. The Australian Army is in the process of acquiring an enhanced version of the U.S.-Norwegian National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System (NASAMS) that includes ground-based launchers for AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missiles (AMRAAM) based on the 4×4 Hawkei vehicle.
Containerized launchers from Lockheed Martin could be one off-the-shelf option for helping Australia’s armed forces more readily acquire longer-range surface-to-air missile capabilities that it does not currently have. The Typhon system the company has developed for the U.S. Army, which includes four-round trailer-mounted containerized launchers derived from the Mk 41 Vertical Launch System, can fire the very capable SM-6, as well as Tomahawk cruise missiles. The SM-6 has the ability to engage a variety of air and missile threats, including a limited capability against hypersonic boost-glide vehicles in the terminal phase of flight. It can also be employed in a ballistic mode against targets at sea and on land.
There is also Lockheed Martin’s Mk 70 Expeditionary Launcher, also known as the Payload Delivery System, developed for the U.S. Navy. The Mk 70 is extremely similar in form and function to the launchers for the Army’s Typhon system, and can also fire the SM-6. Lockheed Martin has also demonstrated the ability to fire the PAC-3 Missile Segment Enhancement (MSE) interceptor originally developed for the Patriot surface-to-air missile system from the Mk 70 and, by extension, other Mk 41-derived launchers.
Variants of the Mk 41 VLS are already in Royal Australian Navy service on Anzac class frigates and Hobart class destroyers, and will be part of the armament package on the country’s forthcoming Hunter class frigates.
In general, “there is a very strong alignment between countries that have Mk 41[-equipped] navies and [ones] that have a desire to add additional cells and firepower to some of their vessels based on a containerized solution,” Dobeck said. In addition, “some of the countries that we’ve been talking to are much more interested in the land-based solution and providing that Mk 41 capability on land.”
“We continue to see a lot of international interest in the European and the Asian market for this kind of capability that’s going to be able to bring them the tried and true capability of Mk 41 vertical launch in a containerized system,” he added.
Australia’s armed forces are set to get an up-close look at one of the U.S. Army’s Typhon systems in action later this year. A live-fire shot from Typhon is currently planned to be part of this year’s iteration of the biennial Talisman Sabre exercise.
Typhon highlights the potential for new containerized launchers to bolster Australia’s long-range land attack and anti-ship capabilities, as well as part of the future AIR6500 air and missile defense architecture. The Royal Australian Navy is now in the process of integrating Tomahawk onto its Hobart class destroyers and expects to arm its Hunter class frigates with those missiles, as well. Tomahawk is a core part of the arsenal on U.S. Virginia class nuclear-powered attack submarines, a number of which Australia is currently in line to receive through the trilateral Australia-United Kingdom-United States (AUKUS) security cooperation agreement.
The Australian military is otherwise looking to expand its land-based long-range strike capabilities through acquisition of Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) and Precision Strike Missile (PrSM) short-range ballistic missiles from the United States.
Loaded with Tomahawks, a containerized Mk 41-based launcher could hold targets on land and at sea at risk anywhere within a roughly 1,000-mile bubble around where it is deployed. The ability to launch SM-6s, PAC-3s, and potentially other missiles would only increase their operational flexibility. Containerized launchers have additional benefits when it comes to speed and distribution of deployment, as well as personnel and logistical footprints, especially if networked to a larger command and control architecture.
The capabilities offered by a new array of containerized launch systems could be particularly valuable for Australia, which has extensive coastlines to defend at a time when the Chinese military is becoming assertive in its part of the Pacific. Australia’s armed forces would also benefit from these capabilities in the event they join other allies and partners in expeditionary operations, especially elsewhere in the broad expanses of the Indo-Pacific in response to any number of contingencies.
What role containerized missile launchers might play in Australia’s future AIR6500 plans remains to be seen, but they could be on the horizon for the country’s armed forces beyond the air and missile defense role, as well.
Howard Altman contributed to this story.
Contact the author: joe@twz.com