Can be mounted on variety of ships says company at SNA 18
At Surface Navy 2018, BAE Systems is displaying its Adaptable Deck Launcher (ADL), a fixed angle, low elevation, deck-mounted ship defence launching system (SDLS) for near-term application onboard the US Navy (USN).
“The concept for the ADL was originally developed to respond to the needs of the USN to increase the protection of its aircraft carriers by adding over-the-horizon weapon systems,” Charlie McCullough, Director of Maritime Business Development at BAE Systems, told MONS. “At the time the USN did not follow through with the idea because they decided to go another direction, however with the new request for over-the-horizon weapons for the Littoral Combat Ships (LCS), we have submitted the ADL again.”
The ADL’s modular design allows any number of launch cells to be configured as low angle, deck mounted launchers for varying ship applications. By the leveraging the existing Mk41 vertical launching system logistics, the ADL would be able to host a variety of missiles such as Kongsberg’s Naval Strike Missile, Boeing’s HARPOON and Raytheon’s Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile (ESSM). “It can easily be adapted to be mounted on a number of different ship classes, such as the DDG-1000s, FFG(X) and Lockheed Martin’s LCS,” continues McCullough, “and because the canister is the same as that of VLS, it can have various applications.”
“We have submitted our proposal for the Block 2 ESSM that would go on the USN’s aircraft carriers, and we are now in discussion for the possibility to fit it on the FFG(X) frigates,” concluded McCullough.
The system was successfully tested on the ground and is still undergoing tests, however McCullough was not able to comment on the TRL of the ADL.
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