In an ostensibly risky and expensive initiative, the US Navy has announced plans to convert surplus oil rig into mobile missile defence and resupply facilities in response to the rising US vulnerability to Pacific foe missile threats.
This quarter, Naval News reported that Gibbs & Cox, a Leidos company, is working to convert oil rigs into heavily armed mobile missile defense and resupply bases as part of its Mobile Defense/Depot Platform ( MODEP ) Concept.
The scheme, designed for oil platforms in the Western Pacific where US forces face intensifying ballistic missile threats, not least from China ’s DF-26 “carrier killer ” projectiles, was presented at this month’s Sea Air Space 2024 expo held in Washington DC.
MODEP can be set up as a big floating island base that can be deployed at the ideal distance from shore and run freely for more than 12 months. The idea aims to bridge the US Navy’s need for an at-sea reloading solution and the ballistic missile defense ( BMD) capability gaps.
The station and MD varieties can travel between 8 and 8 knots and go 200 nautical miles per day. MODEP’s full strength is expected to be 150 times with a range of 4,000 coastal yards without recharging.
The US’s air defence or strike missions are intended to be enhanced by the changed platform. With a capacity five times that of an existing Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, the MODEP could hold up to 512 vertical launch system (VLS ) cells or 100 large missile launchers.
The development of the software might result in significant cost and risk savings for land-based security systems.
The US Navy’s area soldiers and nuclear submarines are also supported by the MODEP strategy through an Afloat Forward Staging Base design. The cost of purchasing these income rig is thought to be 10 % of the BMD version’s cost.
A semi-permanent onshore military center is not a novel concept. Jose Delgado and Eviya Vitola word in a June 2018 Small Wars Journal content that the US envisioned semi-permanent outposts in international waters to help reduce response times to international hub emergencies as a result of the social and security sensibilities the US encountered when using Royal bases for Operation Desert Shield.
Delgado and Vitola do point out that the plan was ineffective when compared to regular sealift skills and that it was not financially possible at the time.
However, it might be possible to expand the concept of a semi-permanent onshore base from a staging and logistics place to include BMD and other vision areas.
In an article published in the Foreign Policy Research Institute ( FPRI ) in October 2015, Sam Tangredi discusses the idea of sea basing. According to the writer, the idea is to use the sea also to land bases for different operations like as deterrence, power projection, joint security, alliance support and additional ahead operations.
Tangredi notes that sea bases can offer several benefits such as joint command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance ( C4ISR ).
They can also offer BMD regional airspace control, emergency medical facilities, and space for joint task force command elements, assist in positioning infantry, light armor, and artillery offshore, and assist in positioning them in the air.
However, Tangredi queries if new sea-basing technologies can outpace evolving anti-access/area-denial ( A2/AD ) threats. He points out that while improving air and missile defenses can lessen A2/AD threats, investing in sea bases is questioned because of their difficult survivability.
He does point out that BMD is a place where sea bases could be useful because multiple land and sea sensors can improve targeting accuracy.
Tangredi suggests that BMD-capable sea bases can also help bridge the gap between land-based and sea-based BMD capabilities, noting that maritime logistics operations carried out through sea bases can aid in keeping BMD-capable ships stationed.
These BMD benefits may be the reason Japan briefly considered building a floating platform capable of BMD after deciding to end its plans for the Aegis Ashore missile defense system in 2020.
At the time, Asahi Shimbun reported that Japan considered using components from the canceled Aegis Ashore project to deploy a floating offshore BMD.
However, there were questions as to whether the offshore BMD system, which was one of the main benefits of the Aegis Ashore system, would continue to protect against North Korean ballistic missiles.
According to the Asahi Shimbun report, maintaining the system operational may be challenging due to bad weather and maintenance issues when deployed at sea.
Additionally, it asserts that installing the missile defense system on a float platform would be unprecedented and might cost a lot of money.
Japan may have chosen to build massive Aegis Equipped Surface Vessels ( ASEVs ), especially in the face of threats coming from North Korea, given the disadvantages of an offshore BMD platform.
Despite that, the US Sea-Based X-band Radar ( SBX ) may provide a concept of MODEP operations given their similar purpose as BMD platforms.
Missile Threat points out that the SBX is a high-resolution radar on a decommissioned North Sea oil rig that helps BMD interceptors understand the difference between deadly objects and debris.
The SBX has been deployed to monitor North Korea’s missile tests and US intercontinental ballistic missile ( ICBM ) tests, according to the report on missiles. It has also been used in 12 Ground-Based Midcourse Defense ( GMD) system tests.
The SBX’s high resolution comes with a narrow 25-degree viewing angle, which limits its ability to track incoming missiles and makes it dependent on other sensors for location and trajectory.
Additionally, it makes note of the SBX system’s requirement to sail from Hawaii to the Western Pacific for optimal positioning, which necessitates significant notice before a missile launch. It claims that it is a costly and complicated system at the same time because of its deployment at sea.
As the Ukraine war demonstrated, oil and gas platforms ‘ heightened militancy and economic sense, which justify converting them into BMD-capable assets.
In a September 2023 Forbes article, David Axe recounts the Russia-Ukraine battle for the Boyko Towers in the Black Sea, noting that big, immobile oil rigs are easy targets for missiles, aircraft and drones.
Axe notes that there would be little to stop the opposing side from striking back if one of those platforms were to be taken over by an adversary.
He also makes note of the difficulty of properly supplying these platforms in times of combat, with personnel aboard most likely being “left out dry ” rather than adequately resupplied and protected.