Somali Pirates... Beware!

Philippine Muslim rebels recently shot down a US spy drone flying inside their territory in the restive southern region of Mindanao, where American forces are aiding local troops in fighting separatist and communist insurgents. The U.S Navy is borrowing a page from the U.S. Army's Future Combat Systems (FCS) playbook, integrating four FCS Non-Line of Sight Launch Systems (NLOS-LS) on the deck of its Littoral Combat Ship (LCS). The NLOS-LS is among the first components that will be fielded to Army Infantry Brigade Teams (IBCTs) as part of FCS Spin-out One in 2011. The Navy will use four 15-missile NLOS-LS Container Launch Units (CLUs) and integrate them into one 60-missile module. Depending on the mission, as many as 180 NLOS-LS Precision Attack Missiles (PAMs) may be available to an LCS captain. The Navy's hope, according to its NLOS-LS project office, is to deploy and control resources from an offshore location to avoid having to establish a base of operations in a potentially hostile location. NLOS-LS will be a critical component to countering fast in-shore attack craft (FIAC) missions in the littorals and extending protection to Marine Corps landing operations, maritime special operations missions and counter-piracy activities. In August, off the coast of the Florida Panhandle, tests were conducted to prove NLOS-LS effectiveness against FIAC target sets. The next system test is scheduled for 2009 and will evaluate NLOS-LS capabilities in a different water environment.

http://www.military.com/features/0,15240,179203,00.html?ESRC=topstories.RSS

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-Line-of-Sight_Launch_System