Naval Surface Warfare a Cost Effectiveness Analysis of Hard-Kill Versus Soft-Kill for Ship Self Defense

Abstract

This project is relevant to military acquisition, U.S. Navy financial management, and Naval Surface Warfare. It examines the cost-effectiveness analysis of potential Navy Surface Ship Electronic Warfare (EW) and vertical launch missile systems (VLS). Our intent is that the research informs the Program Executive Office Information Warfare Systems (PEO/IWS) and OPNAV N96/N2N6 by illustrating the capabilities and costs of EW and missile systems. We examined the effectiveness of Navy systems against a myriad of threat missiles, using estimated percent kill (Pk) calculations that encompassed the underlying sensors consisting of command and control, communications, detection, engagement, and tracking. Our results indicate that the electronic warfare systems, specifically the SLQ-32 (v)7, is the most cost-effective system to deter threat missiles, because of the re-load cost associated with missile systems, specifically the SM-6, SM-2, and ESSM. While the SLQ-32 is the most cost-effective system, we understand the need for redundancy, and we cannot completely disregard defensive missile systems. It is our hope that this research will ultimately aid in strategic decision-making for long-term employment weapons load outs on various ship classes. With more money invested in electronic warfare defense systems, the load out on surface assets can theoretically shift to a more offensive mindset, while still maintaining defensive missiles for the applicable threat environment.