Rocket Science

Lockheed is playing with model rockets:

Lockheed Martin's Miniature Hit-to-Kill, or MHTK, interceptor missile was successfully launched Friday at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, the company announced Tuesday.

While officials still need to review test data, Lockheed said the MHTK could bring miniaturized options to troops with lower costs and smaller logistical footprints.

The interceptor is designed to defeat rocket, artillery and mortar targets beyond the reach of current and interim systems. The MHTK is less than 3 feet in length and weighs about 5 pounds. It is designed to be small while retaining range and lethality.

Estes is eagerly anticipating their lucrative new defense subcontract.

Seriously, though... While a three-foot long missile for shooting down arty shells sounds pretty darn cool, it's still a three-foot long missile. The "logistical footprint" of a light infantry unit -- the primary target for artillery and mortar fire -- is just that, a footprint. Or more precisely, a bootprint.

Which brings us to the crux of the problem: How many of these things will you have to carry to stop an artillery barrage? Hitting a small, fast target like a falling artillery shell with a rocket is far from precise; I guarantee you the hit ratio won't be anything like 1:1. That means you'll need a LOT of three-foot long missiles to stop a battery-five barrage -- I'd guess at least two per man in a standard forty-man platoon. As any infantryman will tell you, there are always more toys to carry than backs to carry them. Furthermore, as any artilleryman will tell you, including our resident redleg Davis, a modern artillery battery can easily send impact-coordinated battery-fives downrange and completely overwhelm any defensive systems. If arty wants you dead, they will eventually make you dead. It's only matter of how many rounds they have in the caissons.*

Adding a bunch of awkward and very esoteric items to the already backbreaking standard grunt loadout seems impractical for the typical light infantry mission. While it might be useful for semi-permanent defensive positions or forward logistics points that make tempting targets for arty RAP strikes, light infantry do not win their battles by cowering in defensive emplacements or guarding ammo dumps. Maybe it could be useful in large calliope launchers as counterbattery defense for arty batteries, but that's still One More Thing to tow around that isn't ammunition, something which no arty unit ever has enough of to complete all of the requested fire missions. And you need a specialized crew to operate and maintain the calliope, food and water for them, transportation, etc...

Sorry if I sound all Negative Nelly on something meant to defend ground troops, because that's a subject near and dear to my heart. This just seems to be of very limited use, more a "gee whiz look what we can do" sort of project than anything with real widespread field application. Maybe I'm wrong, but it wouldn't be the first such boondoggle in DoD history.



*(A battery-five, for those not in the know, means all guns in the battery, typically eight by table of organization, fire five rounds in effect on the target area. Modern computerized fire control systems can make automatic adjustments of elevation and charge between shots, resulting in different flight times for each set of rounds. This produces a saturation effect wherein all 40 rounds impact the target area within only a couple of seconds, rather than being spread out over the better part of a minute as was the case in the past. It is demoralizing and highly destructive to troops caught in the open, especially when using registered point targeting, as the unit receiving fire will not get any warning from adjustment rounds. One minute you're smokin' and jokin' and the next your entire world explodes as two thousand pounds of explosive go off all around you, sending hundreds of two-pound, foot-long razor blades scything through your ranks from every direction. Very nasty.)