Fearing China's hypersonic weapons, US Navy wants to equip ships with Patriot missiles

By Mike Stone and Gerry Doyle

WASHINGTON/SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Fearing that China will use hypersonic weapons to sink ships in the Pacific, the US Navy is moving ahead with a plan to equip some of its ships with Patriot interceptor missiles, two senior defense officials said.

Another industry official said that placing Patriot Advanced Capability-3 Missile Segment Enhancement (PAC-3 MSE) interceptors, which are widely used in the US by the Army, among the Navy ships anticipates progress in China's missile technology, including the use of more powerful hypersonics. weapons.

The integration of Lockheed Martin-made missiles and naval air defenses comes amid heightened tensions in the Indo-Pacific region as China rapidly modernizes its military, and after successful missile defense efforts in Ukraine and the Middle East.

How many PAC-3 interceptors the Navy will need has not been confirmed, but the overall need is “through the roof,” said Tom Karako, a missile defense expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

He said there is a lot of interest from foreign governments, adding that the US Army wants to double production in the coming years.

The US has tapped Japan, a key ally, as a joint production site for Patriot missiles, while Lockheed Martin wants to establish a new production line for the missiles in Florida, industry sources told Reuters.

That plant will complement the production efforts of Boeing's suitors, and Lockheed Martin is pitching the benefits of increased production to the US Army, which it must sign off on.

PAC-3 has already shot down hypersonic missiles in Ukraine. The Navy thinks it could add another, more powerful layer to its anti-missile systems, which have never been tested against such weapons.

The Navy told Reuters, “Further tests are needed in the development pipeline that will include launching the PAC-3 MSE on the ship and verifying communication with the SPY-1 radar,” a key sensor in the Aegis missile system.

That follows efforts by the US military to develop new weapons and new strategies in the Indo-Pacific aimed at preventing Beijing from entering a conflict, or winning one if it does.

Beijing's most sophisticated anti-ship ballistic missile, the DF-27, which uses a hypersonic glide vehicle to target, was tested in 2023. A Chinese Pentagon military report that year said the weapon was “under development”.

The PAC-3 is shorter than the Navy's SM-6 missiles and cannot reach space.

But nose-guided rockets make it much faster, and threat destruction is more likely because of its “hit-to-kill” concept, where the interceptor hits the target rather than detonating near it, the director of the missile defense program said. Aegis system information.

Faced with advanced Chinese weapons, including hypersonic glide warheads, those qualities “supplement the existing missiles of the US fleet very well” by being able to easily hit and destroy high-speed missiles, the program director said.

Like industry and defense officials, he declined to be identified as he is not authorized to speak to the media.

GROWING Threat

The PAC-3 interceptor from the Patriot missile system, widely used by the US Army and allied nations in ground-based air defense, was tested in May on a “virtual Aegis ship” using the Mk. 70 is a direct launcher, but has not yet been installed on naval vessels.

In the past year, however, it has caught a number of ballistic and aviation threats in the Middle East and Ukraine, including Russia's advanced Khinzal missiles, making it an attractive addition to the Navy magazine, defense officials and people familiar with the matter.

The PAC-3 cycle is also much smaller than the SM-6 or SM-3, weighing 300 kg (660 lbs), compared to the 1,500 kg of the SM-6, and is 9 cm ( 3.5 inches) in diameter. .

Costs per missile vary by customer and contract, but both are around $4 million each, according to estimates.

China is already developing anti-ship missiles, including the DF-21D “carrier killer” and the DF-26 intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM).

Its DF-27, which the Pentagon says has a range of 8,000 kilometers (5,000 miles), appears to use a warhead that can evade defenses or easily hit a moving target, said Tim Wright of the missile defense initiative group. at the International Institute of Strategic Studies.

(Reporting by Mike Stone in Washington and Gerry Doyle in Singapore; Editing by David Gregorio and Clarence Fernandez)