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Hypersonic Defence series.  
[Low latency communication network will be developed in a specific chapter.]
(Access to other chapters at the end of this article)

Defence against hypersonic missiles not only requires a drastically reduced tactical response time compared to existing air and missile defences, but also imposes complex strategic posture to enable successful defence of fixed and mobile HVAs (High Value Assets). The geographic scale of such attacks is large and can easily transgress borders and the frontier between land and sea. To address this threat at the scale of a continent the alignment between nations and services will need to improve much beyond what is in service today.

The mere presence of such a threat in the adversary inventory urges for the development of the appropriate means and tools, especially the Command and Control (C2) ones.

The existing Ballistic Missile Defence (BMD) capability that Thales through its Joint Venture Thales Raytheon systems has deployed at the NATO BMDOC in Ramstein since the Initial Operational Capability in 2016, is not designed to address this new threat, and hypersonic missiles claim ability to evade BMD systems. Long-range hypersonic missiles can  fly below the radar horizon of most of the sensors.
So, besides having a new architecture, sensor networks have to be denser and more interconnected. 

Another operational concept relies on by hypersonic missile being launched from platforms (submarines, ships or aircraft) that are closer to the intended targets, with increases uncertainty of who is responsible for the attack and shortens time-to-targets to only a few minutes.

C2 strategic posture needs also to reduce the likelihood of launching platforms moving too close to HVAs. The tactical perspective includes the time pressure for developing Course of Actions (CoA) in a very short timeframe, shortening the sensor to effector loop.
This also implies reducing human interventions in such a response process by using new C2 approaches (Artificial Intelligence, network-based capability) accelerating situational awareness and understanding and timely development of effective CoAs toward the desired end state.

A recommended architecture for countering hypersonic threats includes radars, space-based and elevated infrared sensors, integrated C2 in battle management and communications throughout all levels from strategic to tactical*, and layered defences with effectors in both the glide and terminal phases of flight.

*The drastically reduced time to react, from minutes to seconds, imposes a transparency throughout all levels and the immediacy of the transmission of orders or decisions albeit pre-planned response (PPR) or Vetoes.

Let’s look at it from an alert & detect, command & control, and engage & intercept framework.

At least four components from the C2 Integrated Air and Missile Defence (IAMD) backbone system will have to be adapted or enhanced:

1. Surveillance with Multi-sensor tracker adaptation to high speed and manoeuvrable targets,
2. Missile engagement and fire control with collaborative engagement functions,
3. System orchestration*  with Dynamic Sensors Networking and multi-domain C2
4. Low latency high throughput communication network

*System orchestrator manages capability and authority allocations to nodes within an agile distributed C2 architecture.

Missile Defence systems continue to evolve and can effectively address the challenges posed by hypersonic threats by combining appropriate sensor data in real time and adding new sensors tuned to high speed phenomenology  and high level of manoeuvrability.

The enhanced detection capabilities will provide improved capabilities to:

• Monitor the situation (tracking all the way from launch to impact or intercept, trajectory characterization, discrimination and classification) using advanced data fusion, mixing numerical data (e.g. locations, kinematics, and attributes target types) with abstract symbolic information (e.g. threat knowledge, commander intent and goals). 

•    Assess the situation and estimate adversarial intent for threat assessment (e.g. to determine whether a defensive or offensive reaction is the most appropriate) taking into account the unpredictability of the hypersonic threat trajectory and intended HVA it intends to attack.

•    Develop CoAs (engagement opportunity) and predict their consequences for both sides (blue and red forces).

•    Decide CoA and direct its execution while monitoring the evolving situation in the environment (Engagement performance assessment and Interception efficiency monitoring).

Cooperation between nations and services requires enhanced interoperability allowing true collaborative combat. NATO studies are ongoing in which Thales participates, together with other industries, technical institutes and operational experts. These studies aim to define the future C2 architecture. This will allow real-time orchestration/optimization of sensor & weapon clusters at a much larger scale as possible today. Dedicated sensor collaboration such as direct sensor-to-sensor collaboration (meta sensor) that improves sensors’ intrinsic performances (e.g. a sensor’s own tracking robustness) and multisensors trackers that fuse heterogeneous measurements, thus enhancing situational awareness and information superiority can be supported by C2 networks that allow plot level data exchange. The Plot Level Data Exchange and Fusion (PLDEF) study between France and the Netherlands, in which Thales is involved, showed already during the NATO Formidable Shield 2021 exercise that the exchange of plot data between naval assets will enhance the recognized maritime pictures with respect to speed of detection as well as accuracy.

As indicated earlier, it’s crucial that all domains being space, air, ground and naval are connected in one integrated solution.   Our experience in all four domains enable us to support our customers in defining an integrated air and missile defence solution fit for mission.

In the ground based air defence field, through cooperation with major industrial partners, Thales has deployed the entire IAMD C2 chain (NATO TMD Increment 1 developed by Thales Raytheon Systems), from early warning to neutralisation. This chain already has initial anti-hypersonic capabilities. Studies have been launched in all segments of the C2 chain to broaden its capabilities by integrating new detection, communication and interception components. 

I terms of high performance ground based air defence, in-service systems such as the French-Italian SAMP/T provide already terminal defence capabilities to protect sites against threats incoming at very high speed. Implementation by Eurosam Joint Venture of the SAMP/T NG system roadmap will gradually increase the surface area of the protected zone and the range of hypersonic threats that can be countered. The greater the integration of the system into an intelligent network, the higher the protection performance. The SAMP/T NG roadmap includes in particular the deployment of the dynamic management network of sensors and effectors, the concept of which has just been selected by the European Commission for funding under the European Defence Fund.

In the naval domain, Thales is a key player in naval combat management systems with its system integration, TACTICOS combat management system and missile integration experience ranging from the Aster family from Europe to the US missiles (ESSM and Standard Missile). This is supported with a wide range of surveillance and fire control radars to support air and missile defence missions. TACTICOS is evolving to a CMS including capabilities at Force Level. The latest development is the Above Water Warfare System developed for the Dutch, Belgium and German navies for their next generation of frigates.  Furthermore, EM spectrum management systems like the Thales PARTNER-C will optimize use of own unit sensors and communications which is crucial for continuous connectivity.

These ground and naval developments will deliver collaborative surveillance and engagement capabilities including naval task groups as well as ground based assets like SAMP/T NG as mentioned above. EM spectrum management for optimized use of own unit sensors, weapons and communications.