Lockheed Martin Ramps Up Aegis

Aviation Week and Siace Technology ^ | 1/25/2011 | Michael Fabey

[ErnstStavroBlofeld]

The U.S. Navy has successfully completed a tracking exercise using the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) system during Atlantic Trident 2011, which runs through Jan. 25.

The guided missile cruiser USS Monterey and destroyers USS Ramage and USS Gonzalez tracked the short-range ballistic missile target launched from NASA’s Wallops (Va.) Flight Facility, the service said Jan. 21. The missile fell harmlessly into the Atlantic Ocean. Monterey and Ramage took turns tracking and simulating engagement of the target while Gonzalez, a guided-missile destroyer, tracked the target, the Navy says. All three ships tracked the missile, and Monterey and Ramage provided simulated target solutions, but the ships fired no missiles.

The relatively new and expanding role for BMD missions for Aegis-equipped vessels has provided a renaissance for both the system and the ships that employ them, according to Jim Sheridan, Lockheed Martin’s director of the Navy Aegis program. The company is in the midst of a major Aegis modernization effort for vessel upgrades, testing its BMD capabilities and tweaking the Aegis multi-mission signal processor, which enables Aegis-equipped ships to conduct BMD and ship-self-defense missions without missing a beat.“On earlier BMD ships, you have to set up the ship for the situation you’re walking into,” says Lisa Callahan, vice president for Lockheed Martin Maritime Missile Defense programs. “With the microprocessor, you now have balance. You don’t have to prioritize. You’re not sacrificing one for the other.”

[Leisler]

Cool.

[I Buried My Guns]

Very, very cool.