On Saturday, August 30, 2025, Tom Cavanagh, Director of Naval Systems at Lockheed Martin Missiles & Fire Control (a division of Lockheed Martin), announced via LinkedIn that tests had been conducted to evaluate the possibility of deploying an M903 launcher of the MIM-104 Patriot air and missile defense system on an Independence-class Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) guided-missile frigate
Photos: Tom Cavanagh via LinkedIn
“Such an amazing week onboard USS MONTGOMERY (LCS 8) demonstrating expeditionary IAMD capabilities. PAC-3 MSE for the Navy not only addresses capability and capacity gaps – but is a force multiplier!” wrote Tom Cavanagh, sharing three images.
As Director Cavanagh noted, the system was deployed on the trimaran USS Montgomery (LCS-8), commissioned into the U.S. Navy on September 10, 2016, with its home port at Naval Base San Diego. Interestingly, the vessel is being considered for decommissioning, and is therefore used for ongoing testing of new solutions (for example, on May 12, 2022, it was used to launch an AGM-114L Hellfire anti-tank guided missile against land targets from littoral waters).
According to the published information, the launcher, deployed on the ship’s large aft deck, was fitted with a dual-containerized universal Mark 70 PDS Mod 1 (Payload Delivery System) launch module, developed on the basis of the naval Mark 41 VLS (Vertical Launching System).
It is worth noting that on May 20, 2024, Lockheed Martin reported the first missile firing of a PAC-3 MSE (Patriot Advanced Capability-3 Missile Segment Enhancement) interceptor from this very module. The system, unveiled in September 2021, was originally designed for the RIM-174 SM-6 ERAM surface-to-air/anti-ship missiles.
Earlier, on July 10, 2023, Lockheed Martin announced the integration of the PAC-3 MSE missile with the Aegis Combat System, where for the first time it communicated with the AN/SPY-1 air and surface search radar. However, the smaller Independence-class ships are not equipped with this system.
It is also worth noting that the Mark 70 PDS Mod 1 launch module was observed on the deck of another LCS-class vessel, the conventional Freedom-class frigate USS Nantucket (LCS-27), during its commissioning ceremony into U.S. Navy service, which took place on November 16, 2024, in Mayport, Florida.
Mark 70 PDS Mod 1 on the aft deck of USS Nantucket (LCS-27) Freedom-class / Photo: Screenshot from U.S. Navy commissioning ceremony video
Interestingly, Russia had previously decided to experiment with the deployment of land-based air defense systems at sea. On March 29, 2017, the state television channel Rossiya 24 broadcast a video of tests of the Tor-M2KM short-range air defense system on the guided-missile frigate RFS Admiral Grigorovich (494), Project 11356R/M Admiral Grigorovich (NATO reporting name: Krivak IV). The trials, carried out in October 2016 while the ship was in the Black Sea, were intended to demonstrate the feasibility of developing a dedicated naval version of the system.
Later, in August 2024, a Tor-M2KM system was observed aboard the small missile ship RFS Sovetsk (252; formerly Tayfun), Project 22800 Karakurt, which belongs to the Baltic Fleet and had recently taken part in the July Storm (Russian: Ijulskij Shtorm) exercise.
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