SM-6 can now hit ships? Forgive me if I'm not impressed.

Thanks to Gruaak for the link!

via SecDef Twitter Feed.

#SecDef breaking news: We’re modifying the SM-6 so that in addition to missile defense, it can also target enemy ships at sea.

So we're taking part of our anti-air loadout and going to dual purpose it to kill ships?  Exactly how many per ship will it take to get a kill?  How many are going to be dedicated to the anti-ship mission and will that mean that we'll be unable to deal with swarm attacks by marauding enemy air? How far will the thing go?  How much will this cost?

I'm just an armchair blogger and these are just a few of the questions I have.  But what should be disturbing is that this is being considered instead of doing the work to field a purpose built anti-ship missile that is long ranged and hits hard.

Once again we're seeing half measures being trotted out as world beating solutions.  Forgive me if I'm not impressed.