The U.S. Marine Corps tests the "Nemesis" shore ship missile system

A few days ago, the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps held joint exercises in the waters near Hawaii. During this period, the U.S. Marine Corps used the "Nemesis" shore ship missile system to launch NSM anti-ship missiles against water targets. This is the "debut" of this type of combat system in the joint exercise, and it will exist as a distributed maritime combat node of the US military in the future.

"The Goddess of Vengeance" was unveiled

Shore-based missiles are missile systems launched from shore to attack enemy surface ships and are an important part of modern coastal defense systems. Compared with ship-to-ship missiles and air-to-ship missiles, shore-based missile systems are often deployed in coastal areas, guarding important waterways, fjords and seaports, and giving an important blow to the invading enemy at the last moment.

Unlike most countries in the world that attach importance to the development of shore ship missile systems, after the end of World War II, the United States pushed the sea defense line to the deep ocean, and did not attach importance to the shore ship missile system, until the 1980s, when a shore ship missile system was launched on the basis of the "Harpoon" anti-ship missile, but it was mainly used for export, and the US military was not equipped.

Since the 21st century, as U.S. military strategy has changed, the U.S. Marine Corps has become more involved in naval operations. In November 2017, the U.S. Marine Corps officially released a request for information seeking "rapidly procured shore-based anti-ship missiles that can be deployed in coastal areas to carry out precision strikes against surface ship targets at least about 130 kilometers away." The letter of inquiry requires that the weapon be "highly maneuverable and mission-adaptable, and can be integrated with the firepower strike systems, command and control systems, and surveillance and reconnaissance systems of the United States and its partners." The full name of the project is the Marine Corps Expeditionary Anti-Ship System, code-named "Goddess of Vengeance".

At the end of 2020, the "Nemesis" shore ship missile system debuted, using Raytheon's NSM anti-ship missile with Oshkas' unmanned launch vehicle. In April, the system was tested for the first time off the coast of California.

Remote-controlled trolleys with stealth missiles

Compared with the traditional shore ship missile system, the "Nemesis" shore ship missile system has the following characteristics.

First, the whole system is greatly simplified. Traditional shore-based missile systems, equipped with independent search, sight, charge, and launch units, are large and have limited maneuverability, making it difficult to deploy quickly and remotely.

The "Nemesis" shore ship missile system is much simpler. The system consists of a command and control vehicle and a missile launcher, which is improved on the basis of a joint light combat vehicle, and the launch vehicle has also undergone unmanned transformation, so that the full weight of the vehicle body is further reduced, and it can be automatically loaded and unloaded, entering or withdrawing from the launch base.

Second, anti-ship missiles have strong performance. NSM is a medium-sized anti-ship missile developed by the Norwegian company Kongsberg, with a length of 3.95 meters, a total weight of 400 kg, a maximum range of about 185 km, a cruising speed of Mach 0.95, a 125 kg warhead and a programmable fuze, which can effectively damage large and medium-sized surface ships. Due to the use of many stealth designs, including the air intake is located in the upper part of the projectile body, the bullet has a strong concealed penetration capability.

The third is to use the network to achieve the crackdown. The "Nemesis" shore ship missile system is not equipped with a sea search and target indication radar, but uses the data link in the combat network to complete the tracking attack of the target. After the missile is launched, while correcting the track through the data link, the flight trajectory is transmitted back, so that the operator can intervene in the strike process when necessary, which improves the flexibility of the strike.

Serving distributed maritime operations

According to a report by the U.S. Naval Research Institute, in recent years, as the U.S. Navy has begun its strategic transformation, the "forward presence" and "sea-to-land" that were previously emphasized have gradually shifted to improving the ability to conduct campaign-level operations with strong enemies at sea in a confrontational environment. To this end, the U.S. Navy and marine corps have changed the past practice of fixed force grouping structures (such as aircraft carrier strike groups and expeditionary strike groups) for key deployment in key locations around the world, and instead consider adopting a variable force grouping structure dominated by distributed maritime combat operations, distributing a large number of ships and aircraft, and flexibly marshalling and sharing data with other new manned/unmanned equipment in the combat area to form a comprehensive battlefield network across services. Under this network, the US offensive units are scattered and deployed, which can effectively strike at strong enemies and are not easily attacked by firepower.

The "Nemesis" shore ship missile system is a network node weapon developed to implement this operational idea. The system can be flexibly deployed on the forward island through various air-sea vehicles, obtain target data from network nodes such as coastal observation system, manned/unmanned aerial vehicles and surface ships, and launch missiles by remote control, which plays a role in blocking the island chain and supporting capital ship operations.

Conversely, how to deal with this missile system? NSM anti-ship missiles have a limited range, and operating outside their range avoids their strike threat. At the same time, enhancing the detection and interception capabilities of stealth targets is also an effective means of countering such missiles. In addition, this threat can also be eliminated by destroying the data link between the nodes of the distributed maritime combat system and hard-killing the unmanned shore ship missile launcher.

Source: China National Defense Daily