First SeaRAM missile system fired from DDG
NewsMarch 15, 2016
ATLANTIC OCEAN. A live-fire SeaRAM missile system test was performed by sailors serving on the USS Porter (DDG 78), a Arleigh-Burke class, guided-missile destroyer stationed in Rota, Spain. SeaRAM is a self-contained detect-to-engage ship self-defense system that marries the sensor systems of a CIWS with an 11-round Rolling Airframe Missile (RAM) launcher.
SeaRAM replaced the Porter's aft Close-In Weapon System (CIWS) mount. The missile system's installation on the destroyer happened as a response to a formal Urgent Operational Need for forward-deployed naval forces in Europe. Porter is the first of four DDGs to get the Mk 15 SeaRAM Missile System equipped with improved capability RAM Block 2 missiles.
"The addition of this advanced weapon system to Porter's arsenal is extremely welcome," says Cmdr. Andria Slough, USS Porter's commanding officer. "It is a culmination of the cooperation of several program offices and agencies, both at sea and ashore."
The live-fire Combat Systems Ship Qualification Trial (CSSQT) was the first cooperative effort between NAVSEA agencies and El Arenosillo Test Range off the coast of Huelva, Spain. The CSSQT concluded a year's worth of work by engineering and acquisition professionals at NAVSEA.
"This team was able to go from white paper concept to live-fire testing in 12 months," says Rear Adm. Jon Hill, of Program Executive Office for Integrated Warfare Systems (PEO IWS). "Our weapons, ship integration, and testing experts coordinated across a number of commands and organizations to identify assets, execute critical engineering requirements, deliver equipment, complete system installation, and conduct testing on a foreign test range ... all in record time; professionally and with the urgency of meeting a critical warfighting need."
PEO IWS is an affiliated Program Executive Office of the Naval Sea Systems Command. PEO IWS is responsible for leading development of surface ship and submarine combat technologies and systems, and for implementing Navy enterprise solutions across ship platforms.
