Aegis undergoes MMW tests
The US Navy, Lockheed Martin and Missile Defense Agency’s Aegis Combat System has successfully taken part in Multi-mission Warfare (MMW) tests aboard the destroyer vessel USS John Paul Jones, the company announced on 3 August.
During these tests the ballistic missile defence (BMD) and air warfare capabilities of the Aegis were successfully tested. The system used was the latest Baseline 9.C1 iteration of the Aegis configuration for destroyers. It includes the BMD 5.0 CU generation of ballistic missile defence programming.
According to Lockheed Martin, the Aegis system detected, tracked and engaged two air warfare and two ballistic missile targets over the course of the four MMW events. In each event, the Aegis successfully intercepted a single target.
The tests marked the first lower atmosphere engagement of a ballistic missile target by a Baseline 9.C1 configuration Aegis system, which enables the system to engage missiles in their terminal phase before reaching their target.
Under the Baseline 9 configuration, anti-air warfare and BMD capabilities are merged with the Aegis system’s integrated air and missile defence capability using open architecture and commercial off-the-shelf technologies.
Paul Klammer, director of the Aegis ballistic missile defense program, Lockheed Martin, said: ‘Each generation of the Aegis Combat System adds new capabilities to keep pace with emerging threats, and these tests were really designed to demonstrate the compatibility of new BMD capabilities with the entire system.
‘Tremendous credit goes to the crew of USS John Paul Jones, who really put forth a great effort under challenging test conditions to demonstrate the extraordinary capabilities their ship can bring to defending our nation.’
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