ESSM

The Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile (ESSM) program is an international cooperative effort among twelve NATO SEASPARROW nations. The program's specific goals include designing, developing, testing, producing, and providing in-service support for a new and improved version of the SPARROW missile (RIM-7P) with enhanced kinematic performance to defeat current and projected threats. The ESSM program aims to provide crucial defense battlespace and firepower against fast, low altitude, highly maneuverable Anti-Ship Cruise Missile (ASCM) threats. The program also focuses on replacing the largely obsolete guidance section with a dual-mode Active/Semi-Active X-Band seeker capable of defeating future threat capabilities within the existing envelope.

The ESSM program's objectives include conducting developmental and operational testing from AEGIS destroyers and the Self Defense Test Ship. It also involves production deliveries and Full Rate Production rounds delivering to the Fleet in 2025. The program aims to achieve Full Operational Capability with optimized implementation for AEGIS to make full use of capability resident in the missile, and a functional implementation for SSDS platforms by 2025. Additionally, the program focuses on production support such as Producibility/Procurement Support, Security Infrastructure Support, Configuration Management Support, and Hardware/Maintenance Support for ESSM Blk 2 under the cooperative Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Consortium Partners. The US is responsible for approximately 45% of the missile production support under this approved MOU. The program also aims to increase production support from FY 2023 to FY 2024 above inflation to meet production capacity ramp-up requirements for achieving required production quantities in FY 2025 and beyond.