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Serious Dollars for AEGIS Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD)

May 15, 2019 04:54 UTC by Defense Industry Daily staff

Latest update [?]

May 15/19: Failure to detect North Korean Missiles? According to reports, South Korea’s early warning systems may not have detected North Korean missiles tested last week. Reasons for the Peace Eye airborne early warning and control aircraft, and early warning systems on Aegis ships not detecting the missiles are currently being investigated. North Korea’s missiles flew 260 miles and 170 miles. They were launched from Kusong in the northwest last Thursday. South Korea just recently approved plans for the next batch of Aegis destroyers. A contract for the construction of the destroyers is scheduled to be signed with Hyundai Heavy Industries later this year. South Korea’s Peace Eye fleet started deployment in 2011-2012. A total of four aircraft are deployed in the network, but one aircraft is undergoing maintenance.

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AEGIS-BMD: CG-70
launches SM-3
(click to view full)

The AEGIS Ballistic Missile Defense System seamlessly integrates the SPY-1 radar, the MK 41 Vertical Launching System for missiles, the SM-3 Standard missile, and the ship’s command and control system, in order to give ships the ability to defend against enemy ballistic missiles. Like its less-capable AEGIS counterpart, AEGIS BMD can also work with other radars on land and sea via Cooperative Engagement Capability (CEC). That lets it receive cues from other platforms and provide information to them, in order to create a more detailed battle picture than any one radar could produce alone.

AEGIS has become a widely-deployed top-tier air defense system, with customers in the USA, Australia, Japan, South Korea, Norway, and Spain. In a dawning age of rogue states and proliferation of mass-destruction weapons, the US Navy is being pushed toward a “shield of the nation” role as the USA’s most flexible and most numerous option for missile defense. AEGIS BMD modifications are the keystone of that effort – in the USA, and beyond.