Navy Special Ops Speedboats Getting Retractable Multiple Drone Launch Systems
Test launches of Anduril's ALTIUS-700 loitering munitions from one of the U.S. Navy's stealthy Combatant Craft Medium (CCM) boats are helping pave the way for a future maritime special operations strike capability. A key requirement for the planned successor to the CCM, or CCM Mk 2, is the integration of a launcher that could fire ALTIUS-700s and other precision munitions.
Members of U.S. Special Operations Command's (SOCOM) Program Executive Office-Maritime (PEO-M) provided updates on work toward the new loitering munition capability and other special operations combatant craft modernization efforts at the annual SOF Week conference this week, at which TWZ has been in attendance. The loitering munition effort, which dates back to at least 2018, has been formally known as the Maritime Precision Engagement (MPE) program, but SOCOM says the name is now shifting to Maritime Launched Effects (MLE).
A stock picture of one of the US Navy's Combatant Craft Medium (CCM) special operations boats. USN
David Vann, a naval systems engineer at the Navy's Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) who works with the division of SOCOM's PEO-M that deals with the combatant craft fleets, was one of the individuals who shared new details regarding the MPE/MLE program at SOF Week. He confirmed today that the ALTIUS-700 is the munition that has been and continues to be used in live-fire testing of the prototype system, with another test launch scheduled to occur this month, in response to direct questions from TWZ Howard Altman.
The ALTIUS-700 is a larger and longer-ranged derivative of the increasingly popular ALTIUS-600 drone, originally developed by Area-I, which Anduril acquired in 2021. The ALTIUS-700 is a modular design that could be configured with additional sensors or other payloads, including electronic warfare and signal relay packages. When configured as a loitering munition, it carries a warhead that offers anti-armor and anti-structure capability, as you can read more about here.
PEO-M also offered new views of a prototype eight-cell MPE/MLE launcher, which has been installed on an existing CCM, including one showing an actual test launch, as seen at the top of this story and below. Details about the launcher remain limited, but it retracts flush into a space on the CCM's bow. This make senses for maintaining the boat's overall stealth characteristics when the launcher is not in use.
Images of the prototype MPE/MLE launcher. SOCOM via Howard Altman
Though ALTIUS-700 has been used for MPE testing to date, it is just one munition that could be integrated into the launcher.
'It could be,' Vann said when asked if UVision's Hero-120 loitering munition might be another option. The U.S. special operations community and the U.S. Marine Corps are already acquiring variants of the Hero-120, including for employment from maritime platforms.
A US Marine Corps Long Range Unmanned Surface Vessel (LRUSV) with an eight-cell launcher for Hero-120 loitering munitions. USMC
SOCOM has also shown UVision's smaller and shorter-ranged Hero-30, as well as Rafael's Spike NLOS (Non-Line Of Sight) missile, as notional options that might meet its MPE/MLE requirements in the past. The U.S. Army has notably fielded the Spike NLOS integrated onto its AH-64 Apache attack helicopters.
A 2018 briefing slide discussing the MPE program, which includes images of a Spike NLOS missile and a Hero-30 loitering munition. SOCOM
'We're not limiting ourselves to any single item,' Vann said.
In terms of the present schedule for the MPE/MLE program, SOCOM now expects the system to enter service as a core element of the CCM Mk 2 boats, the requirements for which are still being finalized. The current goal is to begin fielding the CCM Mk 2s by Fiscal Year 2030.
'It's sort of shocking to some people that none of my combatant crafts are inherently built with an offensive or defensive capability in whole,' Navy Capt. Jared Wyrick, head of PEO-M, said during a talk at the SOF Week conference yesterday. 'And I'm always a big fan of saying, if you can make a product more quickly, things will want to stay further and further away from you.'
'When we specifically are looking at the CCM Mk 2 that we're working on the design of right now, and hoping to put out more information [on] later this year, part of that design was built around what is the fleet of … unmanned aerial systems look like now, so that we were able to accommodate that, and thinking about what's the next generation to look like,' Capt. Wyrick added during a deep-dive session on his office's portfolio at SOF Week today.
It is worth noting here that existing CCMs, as well as smaller Combatant Craft Assault (CCA) special operations boats, can currently be armed with crew-served weapons like the .50 caliber M2 machine gun and 40mm Mk 19 Mod 3 automatic grenade launcher. What mounted armament options might presently be available for the larger and more secretive Combatant Craft Heavy (CCH) boats is unknown. Before they were retired in 2013, the Navy's Mk V Special Operations Craft also offered naval special operators a boat with an integrated ability to launch and recover Scan Eagle drones.
A CCM armed with a pair of .50 caliber M2 machine guns. USN
A loitering munition in the general class of the ALTIUS-700, which has a stated maximum range of 100 miles, as well as the ability to stay aloft for up to 75 minutes, will offer CCM Mk 2 crews an all-new way to prosecute targets at sea or on land at standoff ranges. Loitering munitions also have secondary surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities that could be valuable to these kinds of operations, well.
As TWZ has pointed out in past reporting on the MPE/MLE effort, armed with this capability, the Navy special operations speedboats could be used in a variety of scenarios, including engaging high-value and/or time-sensitive targets close to a coastline or at sea. Non-line of sight fire support, surveillance, and reconnaissance capabilities could also just particularly useful for supporting special operations raids ashore or boarding operations at sea.
A networked swarm of loitering munitions and other drones with different payloads could offer additional flexibility when it comes to finding targets and employing non-kinetic effects, as well as launching kinetic attacks, across a broad area. Control of loitering munitions could also be passed off to other friendly forces in the air, at sea, and on land, including other drones configured as signal relays, to help reach further-flung target areas. This is a concept of operations that has been explicitly highlighted in relation to the MPE/MLE program.
A graphic included in a PEO-M presentation at this year's SOF Week conference that shows the prototype MPE/MLE launcher, at left, as well as a depiction of how control of a loitering munition launched from a combatant craft could be passed to forces ashore. SOCOM via Howard Altman
'One of our combatant crafts is not going to stop next war. It's not going to be the one on the line saying, 'don't step off.' That's going to be done by a lot of our capital asset platforms [like] carriers [and] submarines,' Capt. Wyrick said at SOF week yesterday. 'Naval Special Warfare [NSW] has the opportunity to increase their lethality and survivability when that war is going to start, and make it visible that they will have that edge when the war is going to start by the efforts that NSW is going to provide.'
CCM Mk 2s with launchers loaded with ALTIUS-700s or other precision munitions are now set to be another way Navy special operations forces will be able to add that lethality in the future.
Howard Altman contributed to this story.
Contact the author: joe@twz.com
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