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Serious Dollars for AEGIS Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD)

Dec 04, 2018 04:56 UTC by Defense Industry Daily staff

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December 4/18: Aegis ACB support Lockheed Martin is receiving a contract modification to exercise options for ship integration and test of the Aegis Weapon System (AWS). Issued by the Naval Sea Systems Command, the $20.5 million modification supports Aegis baselines through Advanced Capability Build (ACB) 12. Efforts covered under this contract include shipboard integration engineering; Aegis test team support; Aegis modernization team engineering support; ballistic missile defense test team support and AWS element assessments. The contract provides for work on five new-construction DDG 51-class ships and for modernisation work on another five Arleigh Burke-class destroyers. The deal also covers integrated combat system modifications and upgrades for all ships with Aegis baselines up to and including advanced capability build 12. The AWS is a centralized, automated, C2 and weapons control system featuring a radar that can perform search, track and missile guidance functions simultaneously, with a track capacity of more than 100 targets. Work will be performed at multiple locations – including, but not limited to – Bath, Maine; San Diego, California and Deveselu, Romania.

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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.