The Navy successfully tested its Standard Missile-6 Aug. 14 at White Sands Missile Range in one of 10 planned follow-on operational test and evaluation (FOT&E) events.
During flight test “Juliet,” the Navy proved the SM-6’s ability to intercept a subsonic, low- altitude target over land. The other nine tests would test the missile against other combinations of threats and environments.
“This event demonstrated SM-6′s ability to detect and engage a slow moving target in the presence of complex land clutter,” Jim Schuh, anti-air warfare missiles technical director at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab, said in a Navy statement. “It is another victory for this very versatile weapon.”
FOT&E test events will continue through the second quarter of fiscal year 2016, according to the Navy news release.
SM-6 deployed for the first time in December, marking its initial operational capability. Testing has continued since that milestone, with a four-part test in June proving the system can hit both supersonic targets and over-the-horizon targets in an operational setting.
According to a press release from SM-6 developer Raytheon (RTN), the destroyer USS John Paul Jones (DDG-53) conducted three tests under the the Naval Integrated Fire Control-Counter Air (NIFC-CA) network of sensors and weapons. SM-6 successfully engaged subsonic, low-altitude target drones beyond the sight of the destroyer. A fourth SM-6 later intercepted a target moving at supersonic speeds.
“Combatant commanders want more deployed,” Mike Campisi, Raytheon’s SM-6 senior program director, said in a company news release after the June tests. “We continue to exceed our cost reduction targets, allowing the Navy to increase order quantities even in a budget-constrained environment.”
Also in June, Raytheon was awarded a $275 million contract modification for the procurement of 93 additional SM-6s.