Lockheed Martin details latest Aegis Combat System tests

The Aegis Combat System has recently completed the longest-range engagement ever tested for the Standard Missile-6 (SM-6) as part of a major series of tests for the US Navy’s integrated air and missile defence (IAMD)-equipped USS John Paul Jones (DDG-53).

The tests are part of work to confirm the Aegis Combat System’s capabilities, and validate the system’s accuracy in identifying and destroying threats from beyond the radar horizon.

Three Naval Integrated Fire Control-Counter Air (NIFC-CA) exercises were conducted. The first involved a long-range mission, known as AS-2A, which used data from a non-Aegis system to identify targets in a stressing scenario. The second and third tests, AS-2B and AS-2C, were conducted in increasingly difficult conditions that involved targets at varying altitudes and cross-sections.

Jim Sheridan, director of Aegis US Navy programs, Lockheed Martin, said: ‘NIFC-CA is a game changer for the US Navy because it can be used in collaboration with other systems, to track and destroy approaching cruise missiles at much longer distances than existing technologies can.

‘This validation of the NIFC-CA capability aboard a destroyer comes on the heels of the successful cruiser tests we completed onboard USS Chancellorsville back in August 2013 and we look forward to seeing this capability fielded in the fleet.’

NIFC-CA will complete additional testing throughout 2014 before being deployed on the Theodore Roosevelt Battle Group in 2015.