Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

To: Lower Deck
You mean you don't know?

Yes, but I was letting you have the opportunity to show us how much you know.

I've been out of the service for over 10 years so I can't speak to what's happened since then.

Fair enough.

But nothing like that existed in the 1990s.

"Aegis was initially developed by the Missile and Surface Radar Division of RCA, which was later acquired by General Electric. The division responsible for the Aegis systems became Government Electronic Systems. This, and other GE Aerospace businesses, were sold to Martin Marietta in 1992.[7] This became part of Lockheed Martin in 1995.

Large screen displays on USS Vincennes, typical of early Aegis platforms 1988 By the late 1950s, the U.S. Navy replaced guns with guided missiles on its ships. These were sufficient weapons but by the late 1960s, the U.S. Navy recognized that reaction time, firepower, and operational availability in all environments did not match the anti-ship missile threat.[citation needed] The new threat of Soviet anti-ship missiles exposed a weakness in contemporary naval radar. The requirements of both tracking and targeting these missiles was limited by the number of radars on each ship, which was typically 2–4. In 1958 the navy started the Typhon Combat System, a prophetic program culminated in the futuristic, but unreliable AN/SPG-59 phased array radar which was never made viable and was canceled in 1963 to be replaced by the Advanced Surface Missile System (ASMS).[8]

As a result, the US Navy decided to develop a program to defend ships from anti-ship missile threats. An Advanced Surface Missile System (ASMS) was promulgated and an engineering development program was initiated in 1964 to meet the requirements.[9] ASMS was renamed "Aegis" in December 1969 after the aegis, the shield of the Greek god Zeus. The name was invented at the suggestion of Captain L. J. Stecher, a former Tartar Weapon System manager, after an internal U.S. Navy contest to name the ASMS program was initiated. Captain Stecher also submitted a possible acronym of Advanced Electronic Guided Interceptor System although this definition was never used.[10] The main manufacturer of the Aegis Combat System, Lockheed Martin, makes no mention of the name Aegis being an acronym, nor does the U.S. Navy.

Because the Aegis Combat System is the key component of several cruiser and destroyer class vessels, the ships are often incorrectly referred to as "Aegis class cruisers" or "Aegis class destroyers". In reality, the radar system and the class of ship it is installed on are unrelated to each other.

Large screen displays on USS John S. McCain, circa 1997. Destroyers have two displays while cruisers have four. The first Engineering Development Model (EDM-1) was installed in a test ship, the USS Norton Sound, in 1973.[11] During this time frame, the Navy envisioned installing the Aegis Combat System on both a nuclear-powered "Strike Cruiser" (or CSGN) and a conventionally powered destroyer (originally designated DDG 47). The CSGN was to be a new, 17,200 ton cruiser design based on the earlier California and Virginia-class cruisers. The Aegis destroyer design would be based on the gas turbine powered Spruance class. When the CSGN was cancelled, the Navy proposed a modified Virginia class design (CGN 42) with a new superstructure designed for the Aegis Combat System and with a displacement of 12,100 tons. As compared to the CSGN, this design was not as survivable and had reduced command and control facilities for an embarked flag officer. Ultimately this design was also cancelled during the Carter Administration due to its increased cost compared to the non-nuclear DDG 47. With the cancellation of the CGN 42, the DDG 47 Aegis destroyer was redesignated as CG 47, a guided missile cruiser.

The first cruiser of this class was USS Ticonderoga, which used two twin-armed Mark-26 missile launchers, fore and aft. The commissioning of the sixth ship of the class, USS Bunker Hill opened a new era in surface warfare as the first Aegis ship outfitted with the Martin Marietta Mark-41 Vertical Launching System (VLS), allowing a wider missile selection, more firepower, and survivability. The improved AN/SPY-1B radar went to sea in USS Princeton, ushering in another advance in Aegis capabilities. USS Chosin introduced the AN/UYK-43/44 computers, which provide increased processing capabilities.

During 1980, a destroyer was designed using an improved sea-keeping hull form, reduced infrared and radar cross-sections, and upgrades to the Aegis Combat System. The first ship of the Arleigh Burke class, USS Arleigh Burke, was commissioned during 1991.

Flight II of the Arleigh Burke class, introduced in 1992, incorporated improvements to the SPY radar, and to the Standard missile, active electronic countermeasures, and communications. Flight IIA, introduced in 2000, added a helicopter hangar with one anti-submarine helicopter and one armed attack helicopter. The Aegis program has also projected reducing the cost of each Flight IIA ship by at least $30 million."

(source:

299 posted on 06/14/2016 5:43:38 PM PDT by UCANSEE2 (Lost my tagline on Flight MH370. Sorry for the inconvenience.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 287 | View Replies ]


To: UCANSEE2

Where is the part that says that a missile can be shot from a submarine and controlled by the surface ship?


308 posted on 06/15/2016 3:45:33 AM PDT by Lower Deck
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 299 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson