HMAS Sydney seen here firing the Royal Australian Navy's first SM-6 during Exercise ‘Pacific Dragon' 2024. (Commonwealth of Australia)
Canberra is acquiring the Standard Missile-2 Block IIIC (SM-2 IIIC) and Standard Missile‑6 (SM-6) effectors under an AUD7 billion (USD4.6 billion) agreement with the United States.
The missiles will be deployed across the Royal Australian Navy's (RAN's) Hobart-class destroyers and future fleet of Hunter-class frigates, Australia's Minister for Defence Richard Marles and Minister for Defence Industry and Capability Delivery Pat Conroy announced in a joint statement on 22 October.
“The acquisition of the Standard Missile 2 Block IIIC (SM-2 IIIC) and Standard Missile‑6 (SM-6) is a significant milestone in the government's rapid progress in boosting the long-range capability of [the] navy's surface combatant fleet,” the statement said.
“The SM-2 IIIC and SM-6 complement existing capabilities such as ESSM [Evolved SeaSparrow Missile] Block 2 and Naval Strike Missile as part of a layered strike and missile defence capability for [the] navy's surface combatant fleet,” the statement added.
In August the RAN's third Hobart-class destroyer Sydney carried out a first-of-class firing of the SM-6.
It was fired as part of Exercise ‘Pacific Dragon' 2024 in the vicinity of Hawaii, the Australian Department of Defence disclosed in a 10 August statement without revealing the exact date of the event.
With the firing, Australia became only the second country to have fired the SM-6 missile other than the United States.
The SM-6 is a 6.55 m anti-air missile that can also undertake anti-surface warfare and ballistic missile defence operations.
It has a launch weight of about 1,500 kg and can attain a top speed of Mach 3 with an estimated maximum range of about 370 km.
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