USMC’s MRIC 'Iron Dome' Will Provide Much Needed Air Defense

Jun 30, 2023

Peter Ong 30 Aug 2023

The MRIC is a surface-to-air missile (SAM) system that has a range greater than the U.S. Marine Corps’ (USMC) FIM-92 Stinger low-altitude short-range air defense (SHORAD) missiles carried aboard Polaris MRZR utility task vehicles for shoulder-firing and aboard “Avenger” HMMWVs in a four-shot twin pod pedestal mount on the back of that vehicle that can be fired by a Marine from inside the pedestal or via remote control from a safe distance.

The reputable Stinger heat-seeking fire-and-forget missile has a limited range of 8 kilometers (nearly 5 miles) and is the primary low-altitude anti-aircraft and anti-rotorcraft short-range air defense missile for the Marine Corps. While passive in that Stingers don’t emit radar signatures to reveal their firing locations, Stingers have to track and lock onto the heat or ultraviolet signature of the aerial target before launch and thus have limited use against incoming saturation attacks and unmanned aerial systems such as drone swarms. A radar is required to autonomously search, locate, and track more complex aerial threats and for dealing with mass saturation attacks. That is where the U.S. Marine Corps’ new Medium-Range Intercept Capability (MRIC) comes in.

MRIC fires the Raytheon “SkyHunter” SAM, the American name for the Israeli “Tamir Iron Dome” missile that proved its worth defending Israel from incoming rocket attacks. According to Raytheon’s “Iron Dome/SkyHunter” website, “The `Iron Dome’ Weapon System; it’s the world’s most-used system, intercepting more than 1,500 incoming targets with a success rate exceeding 90 percent since being fielded in 2011. Iron Dome detects, assesses and intercepts a variety of shorter-range targets such as rockets, artillery and mortars. It is effective day or night and in all-weather conditions including low clouds, rain, dust storms and fog. It features a first-of-its-kind multi-mission launcher designed to fire a variety of interceptor missiles.” MRIC’s SkyHunter has a range of 4-70 kilometers (2.4 to 43.4 miles), or over eight times the maximum range of a Stinger missile, and this will allow the USMC to defend a much larger ground footprint in the event that U.S. Navy AEGIS warships and allied warplanes are not available and close enough to provide the Marines air defense cover. The MRIC launcher will be teamed with the USMC’s in-service AN/TPS-80 Ground/Air Task Oriented Radar (G/ATOR) battlefield radar for target detection, acquisition, location, tracking, and engagement.

MRIC’s SkyHunter has a range of 4-70 kilometers (2.4 to 43.4 miles), or over eight times the maximum range of a Stinger missile, and this will allow the USMC to defend a much larger ground footprint in the event that U.S. Navy AEGIS warships and allied warplanes are not available and close enough to provide the Marines air defense cover. The MRIC launcher will be teamed with the USMC’s in-service AN/TPS-80 Ground/Air Task Oriented Radar (G/ATOR) battlefield radar for target detection, acquisition, location, tracking, and engagement.

Each MRIC launcher houses 20 SkyHunter missiles arranged in rows of five missiles across. The Israelis have used three to four stationary “Iron Dome” launchers in a battery, and teamed with a battlefield radar, a battery can defend an area of about 60 square miles.

Naval News reached out to the USMC Systems Command who directed the inquiry to Program Executive Office (PEO) Land Systems. While a lot of the questions Naval News asked were not answered by the USMC (such as MRIC’s airborne transportability, unit cost, types of missiles used, prime mover used, etc.), the PEO Land Systems spokesperson did issue a statement on August 25, 2023.

The Medium Range Intercept Capability will be deployed to defend permanently and operationally fixed sites in designated Area of Operations [AO]. MRIC will provide the Marine Expeditionary Force an air defense umbrella that detects, tracks, identifies and defeats enemy cruise missile threats, Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS), and other identified aerial threats. The MRIC system will leverage available surveillance radar and communication assets within the AO to enhance detection and identification of threats and improve situational awareness. The system will be interoperable with other theater air and missile defense systems to facilitate a defense-in-depth against aerial threats.

Program Executive Officer Land Systems designated the MRIC program a Middle Tier Acquisition Program on June 30, 2020. To meet the residual capability requirements, the Ground Based Air Defense [GBAD] Program Management Office is designing, developing, integrating, and testing a single prototype MRIC system. MRIC, which counts the Corps’ Ground/Air Task-Oriented Radar and Common Aviation Command and Control System among its primary subsystems, also incorporates technology from Israel’s proven Iron Dome system. Several live fire test events conducted at White Sand Missile Range successfully demonstrated the technical capability maturity of the MRIC prototype.

On December 12, 2022, PEO LS approved PM GBAD to proceed in transitioning into the ‘certify the prototype for deployment’ phase of the rapid prototyping MTA strategy. This certification entails developing logistics and sustainment planning, additional testing to include tailored safety testing, assembling the deployable prototype, conducting the cybersecurity assessment, and procuring missiles.

The MRIC MTA Rapid Prototype Phase is expected to culminate upon successful completion of a Quick Reaction Assessment, at which time it is anticipated a decision will be made to deploy and sustain the residual prototype capability. It is further anticipated the MRIC program will transition into MTA Rapid Fielding in early fiscal 2025 to procure the three Batteries of equipment, and field to Low Anti-Air Defense Battalions in fiscal years 2026, 2027, and 2028.

For further, accurate information, please visit these links:

Back to the Future: MRIC and the rebirth of the Corps’ air defense capability > United States Marine Corps Flagship > News Display (marines.mil)

Marine Corps successfully tests Medium Range Intercept Capability Prototype > Marine Corps Systems Command > News (marines.mil)

Naval News and Author’s Comments

The MRIC provides a medium intercept range capability that the Marines never had before, said USMC generals at the telephone conference on “Force Design 2023 Update” held on June 2, 2023 in which Naval News attended. For sure, MRIC will aid in helping defend ground combat Marines in a contested logistics environment to survive against enemy long-range precision fires that may target them.

The USMC seems to be making progress on fielding the MRIC. On August 24, 2023, the USMC posted a contract for:

The U.S. Marines are also developing a mobile radar on a HMMWV for scanning aerial targets. Named the “Enhanced & Extended Multi-Mission Hemispheric Radar (exMHR)” by Leonardo DRS, this non-rotating, digital, solid state, pulse-doppler S-band Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar is cutting-edge and should complement the other Marine Air Defense units from MRIC to Stinger MRZR units to L-MADIS.

Naval News asked the U.S. Navy’s Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) in mid-January 2023 on if the USMC’s MRIC can be used aboard U.S. Navy ships, and if there is a requirement to outfit any U.S. warships with the “Iron Dome” launcher (known as C-Dome when mounted on warships). In particular, ships that lack a dedicated medium-range SAM capability such as the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS), Expeditionary Sea Base (ESB), large Amphibs (Landing Ship Dock (LSD) and Landing Platform Dock (LPD)), Expeditionary Fast Transport (EPF), and future Light Amphibious Warship (LAW)—basically U.S. Navy ships that have a large enough flight deck.

NAVSEA replied with the following statement on February 1, 2023, “At this time, there is no requirement to outfit Iron Dome on surface ships.” However, the USMC MRIC trailer changes the calculus of this question and can bring a robust Air Defense capability to poorly-armed warships without drilling into the deck. The LCSs and ESBs can have their own “Air Defense umbrella” out to 70 kilometers (43 miles) by parking an USMC MRIC trailer or two on the flight deck for a total of 20-40 SkyHunter Interceptors. This sure beats the six-mile defensive radius of the LCS’ (Sea)RAM.

Combined with parking one or a few USMC’s Long-Range Missile (LMSL, a JLTV with a Mark 41 Tomahawk VLS launcher), the LCS or ESB can have both a medium-range SAM and a Tomahawk missile out to 1,000+ miles, all rolled onto the flight deck for easy removal. Even with USMC MRIC trailer(s) and JLTV(s) parked on the flight deck, some flight decks are so large that they can still accommodate a MQ-8 “Fire Scout” for intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance (ISR), missile fire control targeting and tracking, and roaming defense. Having USMC MRIC aboard the LCS, LAW, and Amphibs provides a much better defensive stance for littoral warfare while embarking the USMC LMSL (unmanned JLTV) will provide a deep strike land and anti-ship missile punch beyond the Naval Strike Missile’s 185 kilometers (115 miles; 100 nautical mile) range.

Perhaps in the future, the USMC will experiment with the U.S. Navy on what missile trailers and vehicles to embark aboard certain littoral and amphibious warfare ships to extend the range of the ship’s weapons without any ship deck modifications.