Last month, the United States conducted the Valiant Shield 24 exercise in the Pacific Ocean, showcasing a remarkable event: a land-based unmanned platform successfully hit a moving naval target with a ballistic missile.
The system used was the Autonomous Multi-Domain Launcher (AML), an unmanned version of the wheeled High-Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS), which fired the latest Precision Strike Missiles (PrSM) with a maximum range of at least 500 km.
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These tests have garnered significant interest from the Polish military command, who see the potential of incorporating several HIMARS launchers into the Naval Missile Unit [Morskiej Jednostki Rakietowej, MJR] of the Polish Navy to "further increase the threat to the russian Baltic Fleet," Polish military-themed website Defence24 reports.
The journalists note that the exercises in the USA demonstrate that the arsenal of weapons effective against enemy ships is not limited to the tools used by the American military during this training, namely the unmanned HIMARS, balloons, and Vanilla long-endurance aerial drones. Defence24 suggests that ordinary crewed HIMARS or its tracked sister M270A2 rocket system can be equally successful in this role.
Defense Express reminds that before the Polish Armed Forces can put these conclusions to practice, it will have to acquire PrSM for its HIMARS fleet first.
The idea is indeed viable, considering the PrSM's advantages: a wide attack range, the ability to load two missiles into one launcher, enhanced accuracy, and the capability to attack moving targets with its homing head, usually not present in older ballistic missiles like the ATACMS.
"In this way, HIMARS and MLRS launchers can be used as part of coastal batteries — including in Poland, after purchasing the appropriate version of the PrSM missile," Defence24 notes.
The authors also point out that current ship-based air defense and anti-missile systems are generally ill-equipped to counter ballistic missile attacks, which approach from a near-vertical angle at high speeds. Ballistic missiles are also extremely challenging for enemy ships to detect, meaning that HIMARS with PrSM will "further complicate life for surface ships of the russian Baltic Fleet."
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