By Program Executive Office for Integrated Warfare Systems Public Affairs
ATLANTIC OCEAN (NNS) -- Sailors of USS Porter (DDG 78), a guided-missile destroyer stationed in Rota, Spain, successfully completed a live-fire test from a SeaRAM missile system March 4.
SeaRAM, which replaced Porter's aft Close-In Weapon System (CIWS) mount, is a self-contained detect-to-engage ship self-defense capability that combines the sensor systems of a CIWS with an 11-round Rolling Airframe Missile (RAM) launcher.
"The addition of this advanced weapon system to Porter's arsenal is extremely welcome," said 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, ensuring that out here on the front lines, we receive the capabilities we need, when we need them."
The SeaRAM installation aboard Porter took place as a response to a formal Urgent Operational Need for forward-deployed naval forces in Europe. Porter is the first of four DDGs to receive the Mk 15 SeaRAM Missile System equipped with enhanced capability RAM Block 2 missiles.
Additionally, the live-fire Combat Systems Ship Qualification Trial (CSSQT) represented the first cooperative effort between NAVSEA agencies and El Arenosillo Test Range off the coast of Huelva, Spain. The success of this CSSQT concluded a year's worth of ground-breaking effort for the engineering and acquisition professionals at NAVSEA.
"This team was able to go from white paper concept to live-fire testing in 12 months," said 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 spearheading surface ship and submarine combat technologies and systems, and for implementing Navy enterprise solutions across ship platforms.